Do you ever wonder who wins those Instagram competitions? Are they legit? Does anyone actually win? I certainly did. But it happened, to ME! On Friday I won a +3 adventure to Fratelli Fresh Spring Long Lunch which was on the next day. Normally at least one day of my weekends (generally a Saturday) is booked months in advance with Bottomless Brunch but on this occasion my friend Leanne had cancelled and I was actually free on a Saturday! Fate obviously had other plans in store for me and they included Brunch.

Toni had already sent me a text. She was half an hour early as she had to make her way down from the Blue Mountains. Always better to be early than late which can cause you to miss valuable drinking time. We met out the front and as we entered we were joined by Josephine who was a BB virgin (well she’d never been to one with me so that’s what I’m calling her!)

We were shown to a long table. I didn’t realise this was a Fratelli Event, unlike the Fiesta Italiana I had previously written about here. It was a taste of their new spring menu and we were on a large share table. At first that seemed a bit strange. It was not what I was expecting, but several drinks later we all became the best of friends. We quickly sent Ben a Facebook message as the table started to fill up. Ben was lost but soon found his way not too long after and that was how we started our brunch. All three of my friends I had met at different Socialtables and we had remained friends in real life and on assorted social media long after the events were over.

We were seated at a large table with several long charcuterie boards which were to be shared with the whole table. Seriously what was on these boards was more than enough to feed us for brunch by itself. It contained several things I remembered from our previous Fratelli brunch. The delicious terrine with pistachios, spicy salami, prosciutto and gherkins. The chicken toasts were new though and delicious.

At the other end of the board there was several delicious baby cheeses. Cheddar and a nice soft blue and some other one I didn’t recognise. With delicious bunches of juicy grapes, walnuts, quince paste and some liquid beetroot. There were some strange pea tendrils used as garnish? Most of the table decorations were quite odd but we’ll get back to that later…

When there’s a lot of booze at brunch it’s always good to have carbs to soak it up and there was a huge amount of them. Croissants and pan au chocolate. Toast and raisin toast – not to be confused with the olive bread that I almost spread jam on (thanks for the save Josephine) There was also small jars of strawberry and raspberry jam with butter to go with it.

There were 6 cocktails on the list with the option of house wine and craft beers as well. As a group we decided to work our way through the cocktail list from top to bottom starting with this delicious espresso martini. Much like bubbles and juice I’ve always considered the espresso martini to be a breakfast cocktail so we ordered a round.

Although this dish has existed in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions, its more recent egg and vegetable-based form originated in the Maghreb region of North Africa (Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) according to Wikipedia. But the chef insisted it was Italian and who was I to disagree? I didn’t care! It was a delicious mix of eggs poached in tomato sauce, chili peppers and garlic spiced with cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. It may not look exciting but it was incredibly tasty.

There’s a science to ordering Bottomless booze and sometimes you just need to work out the rhythm. Early on we realised once one round of drinks arrived we should order another round immediately and by the time other drink orders at the table had been taken, the cocktails had been made and were ready to be served we were all ready for our next drink.

• 

• 

I’ve always loved the decor at Fratelli at Darling Harbour. Its cute assortment of neon signage, tonnes of Aperol and Campari bottles line the shelves behind the bar with cute little vepsa wine racks and desks, clean white lines, cool plants and art make it quite eclectic. As the day wore on they even had live music. A guitarist and singer (not pictured, puffy jackets are just not photogenic!) who crooned quietly in the background while we continued our meal.

Pizza was served and then it was on to my favorite part of the meal, dessert! We chose from a multitude of desserts from the dessert bar and as brunch drew to a close and last drinks were called things started to get a little silly as they are wont to do after many cocktails.My seatmate Sarah a gorgeous young girl from Dublin fell in love with my handbag and started sashaying around the restaurant with it to the song Supermodel by to Ru Paul. Mia – further down the table – much like the rest of us was bamboozled by the table decorations. Whole zucchinis, capsicums and oranges, why we asked ourselves? Dan was asked by the girls if he would grab their handbags on the way out. When he popped back into the restaurant I suggested he pose with it – here is just one of the 15 or so handbag shots I have of him werking that bag! All in all a fun day was had until…

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Suddenly the phone rang. Who could it be? Why it was Ash back from her Spice Girls bottomless brunch and begging us to join her at Untied (see previous blog), so that is what we did! Which is another story entirely!

Stop right now! Thank you very brunch!

📍where ICC Sydney -2/14 Darling Dr Sydney

🌏 www – http://www.fratellifresh.com.au/

☕️🍸🥂🍊🍋🍹🍷🍺 bottomless – multiple cocktails, house wines and beer

💵 how much – one off event. Winner winner chicken dinner. I believe the tickets were around $75 though

🥐🥖🍊🍉🍝🥘 – food – huge amounts of share food included

⌚️ how long – 2 hours

🗓 when – one off event but check for more here or sign up to their newsletter