Ach – Hamilton’s striking new wine spot raising the bar for Middle Eastern cuisine
Just before we called time on 2023, a crew of energetic hospo whiz kids planted a flag in Hamilton with Ach (pronounced ‘ah-k’) – a punchy nosh spot and vino-pouring haunt where Middle Eastern cuisine (and wine) is the star.
Here, a mammoth custom-built woodfire hearth is putting flame to hunks of Margra lamb and swordfish skewers, while loaves of challah are being served straight from the oven, and bottles of Lebanese sparkling are uncorked with panache. It’s an early standout for a suburb that’s set for a big growth spurt – here’s what we know …
When we sat down with Marty Coard and Noam Lissner to chat about the opening of their brand-new Middle Eastern-inspired bistro and wine bar Ach, we half expected them to be bone tired and weary. If that was indeed the case, they were doing a great job of masking their fatigue. In fact, the duo seemed to be riding a wave of energy – a high that’s repaired the damage done by the weeks of late nights and early starts required to get their Hamilton-based dining spot up and running.
The long hours have seemingly paid off – Ach is an early smash hit of 2024. After a soft pre-Christmas opening, the team (which includes fellow co-owners Mia Nguyen and Mat Drummond) officially cut the ribbon on Ach on January 3. The venue was fully booked for its first Friday and Saturday night services, and then again the following week. If Brisbane’s dining activity slowed at all in early January, you wouldn’t know it by looking at Ach alone.
“It’s incredible and very surreal,” admits Marty, when asked about Ach’s early popularity. “We’re working so much, but it just feels so good at the same time – the 18-hour days don’t feel like it. That people want to come to try our food, try our wines and be served by us, it’s really humbling.”
Seeing Ach’s dining room full is no doubt a special sight for the up-and-comers, who have struck out on their own for the first time with the ambitious concept, a midpoint between high-end restaurant and informal eatery that shines a light on Middle Eastern, its inspirational anchor.
The site, located in an off-piste portion of Hamilton (MacArthur Avenue, to be specific, a corridor of new development on the fringe of the Northshore Hamilton Priority Development Area), is comprised of a breezy alfresco area and a dining room boasting woody textures and green hues.
“It gets dark and moody at night – turn all the lights down and it gets really nice in here,” says Marty. Key features of the space include a 3.5-m kitchen pass wrought from camphor laurel, a dry-ageing cabinet and a hulking custom-built woodfire hearth (manufactured by Bullockhead Creek BBQ) in the kitchen, which serves as Ach’s nexus.
For Marty and Noam, who previously worked together at Knowhere in Spring Hill, Ach presents an opportunity to back themselves, putting their culinary skills on display via a deep dive into the incredibly diverse and region-spanning traditions of Middle Eastern cuisine.
Incorporating elements from North African countries like Morocco, Libya and Egypt, up through the Levantine – think Israel, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon – and eastward to Afghanistan and Iran, Marty and Noam aren’t limiting themselves in scope.
“It’s all of the flavours and the cooking that I grew up with, but with our techniques and our take on it,” explains Noam. “[The menu is shaped] by the way Marty and I like to eat – the way that we like to dine and share food. When we go to a restaurant together, we order half the menu and share all of it. Then we order the other half, if we’re still hungry.”
Loosely divided into a few categories, Ach’s menu nimbly traverses between snacks and shares. It starts with bread – an integral facet of Middle Eastern cuisine. Pita-like laffa is served with hummus, garlic chive and za’atar for dipping, buttery slabs of malawach come with anchovies, dill cream and mini cucumbers, while hunks of braided challah are available with spiced bone marrow, caper leaf and sumac shallots.
“The breads have so much work that’s gone into them – they’re definitely a key part of our menu,” says Noam. “Whether you order the them as dish or a side, they go with everything.”
From there, diners can nibble on snacks like roasted Falls Farm beetroots with goats cheese cacik and wagyu nayyeh with green tomato ezme and beef-fat aioli. Then come skewers – chicken shashlik with zaalouk, swordfish shashlik with golden raisins and preserved lemon, and mushroom shawarma with baba ganoush and macadamia cheese.
You could fashion a satisfying meal with just the above, but Ach’s mains – Margra lamb ribs with chermoula, 30-day dry-aged sirlions with harissa tahini and baharat squash, and market fish with black-raddish tabbouleh and chatni gashneez – are bona fide showstoppers.
Though easy to navigate, the menu belies the labour-intensive process Marty and Noam have woven into the offering. Here, the duo is doing just about everything in house, from bread making and fermenting to dry ageing of meats. If anything, it shows the chef’s commitment to their shared vision.
“Not having to go through anything or anyone else, we can do exactly what we want to do – we don’t have to sacrifice quality,” says Marty. “I think we’ve got as close as we possibly could to what we envisioned.”
Mia and Mat oversee Ach’s beverage program, which includes a wine list that splits near evenly between Australian wines and vino sourced from Turkey, Israel and Lebanon. A Turkish sauvignon blanc from the Aegean Coast, a syrah from Morocco, a chardonnay from Galilee in Israel and an orange wine from Wadi Annoubine in Lebanon can be found alongside drops from local makers like Minim, Ministry of Clouds, Basket Range and 6 Parallels South.
You’ll also find a clutch of Middle Eastern-inspired cocktails, with stand-out sips including the blue-hued Dead Sea (Tromba tequila, blue curacao, saline and lemon) and a clarified whiskey sour (Starward Two-Fold whiskey, lemon and honey).
Ach isn’t just a lunch and dinner destination. The team currently opens the joint from 7:00 am, Monday to Friday for coffee and pastries, with Ach’s kitchen whipping up breakfast rolls with egg, lamb belly bacon (dry aged, cured, smoked and glazed in house) with harissa, basturma-style bresaola sandwiches, lamb sausage rolls with labne, spinach and fetta bourekas, chocolate tahini cookies and fig and kaymak rugelach, alongside cups of coffee from Melbourne roaster Reverence.
Soon, the crew will look to add a bakery element to the offering, retailing loaves of challah, laffah, malawach and Turkish bread, as well as jars of its own pickles and ferments. Even the main menu will expand – soon Marty and Noam will be cooking up whole lambs and other proteins.
