A ‘mini-pub’ with dad rock and meat raffles opens in a legendary St Kilda site

The team behind The Walrus Oyster Bar in St Kilda has opened a second bar, The Carpenter’s Ruin, right next door. “We’re thinking of it as a mini-pub,” says co-owner Amy McGouldrick. “There are screens to watch the footy, a meat raffle on Friday and 11 beers on tap – everything from XXXX to Brunswick micro-brewer Kettle Green.”

Moving into what was Karen Martini’s popular pizza spot, Mr Wolf, the new venue has a nautical look with woven crab traps slung from the ceiling and maritime flags pinned to midnight-blue walls. Half the room is given over to high tables with stools, the other half to sit-down dining. Dad rock is the music vibe.

Chef and co-owner Ciara Woodside is running a pub-bistro menu with a few quirks. “I’m excited about doing good, homely food, nothing no one’s seen before but really well cooked.”

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Fried balls of goat’s cheese are served with chilli marmalade, there’s smoked bone marrow for scraping onto grilled bread, mussels are tumbled into an enamel bowl for happy snacking, and a double cheeseburger towers over waffle fries sprinkled with pickle salt.

Woodside is from New Zealand and spent a few months in the Cook Islands last year. “We’re also doing ika mata, a Cook Islands version of ceviche soaked in coconut cream and lime juice with coriander and cucumber.”

Fans of The Walrus will recognise a couple of dishes (hello, salted ice-cream sandwich) but the menus are distinct. Dishes for both are prepared at The Carpenter’s Ruin and ferried through a small doorway that had been boarded over for years.

The hatch dates to the days of Mr Wolf, which Martini and husband Michael Sapountsis ran between 2004 and 2021 (it continued under other owners for a couple more years). For much of that time they ran the Little Wolf bar and holding pen in the Walrus space.

“There’s a rich history in these two sites,” says co-owner Marty Webster, who visited both Wolves as a patron. “It’s a little daunting – we’ve got a lot to live up to.”

They’ve side-stepped part of the legacy by removing the pizza oven, but one dish is a homage to Mr Wolf: “We’re doing a nice big schnitzel with a little cabbage salad, like Karen used to do.”

Earlier this year, Webster and McGouldrick were full steam ahead on Tonc, a Mornington Peninsula wine bar which opened in May and promptly caught fire. “It was surreal,” says Webster. “We finished service on a Saturday night with fire engines hosing down the roof.”

The silver lining has been time and headspace to devote to the since-vacated restaurant adjacent to The Walrus, which opened in 2023.

The venues’ names refer to a nonsense verse by 19th-century writer Lewis Carroll in which a walrus and carpenter lead unwitting oysters along the beach then feast on them. The team imagine similar jaunty banqueting in their own mini-precinct.

“We’ve got to know the neighbourhood over the last year and a half,” says McGouldrick. “We know locals are looking for somewhere you could go on a Wednesday and have one beer and a schnitzel, or step it up and have your 50th birthday celebration. We’re excited to welcome everyone for whatever they want.”

Lunch Fri-Sun, dinner daily

15 Inkerman Street, St Kilda, thecarpentersruin.com.au