First Look: La Cave Garage Is Melbourne’s Newest, Tiniest Natural-Wine Shop – In a CBD Car Park Ticket Booth

You know Soi 38. Since opening in 2015, the Thai restaurant hidden in a concrete CBD car park has become an open secret, drawing spice-chasing locals and international celebrities for fragrant boat noodles and other Bangkok street food.

Now, the idiosyncratic diner has a tiny companion – natural-wine shop La Cave Garage, which occupies the car park’s former ticket booth, just across the street on Mcilwraith Place.

Owner Andy Buchan (who also co-owns Soi 38 with chef Chavalit Piyaphanee) says it’s both a standalone retail store and a wine list for those dining across the way. He sees natural wine as a perfect but overlooked pairing for spicy, pungent Thai flavours. “Some people think the chilli can be too powerful for the subtleties of wine, but the thing about natural wine is that it’s a different flavour profile – it’s more vibrant,” Buchan says.

If you’re dining in, it works like this: place your food order and walk a few short steps to the wine booth. La Cave Garage acts as something like a sommelier in a box – just tell them what you’re eating and they’ll find a wine from the 200-plus bottles to match. The potential flavour combos are dizzying, but Buchan has an early favourite. “We’ve got grilled chicken, which is gai yang, with som tum – papaya salad – and sticky rice,” he says. “I put something like that with a nice briny, saline skin-contact white wine.”

It’s essentially BYO with no corkage fee, which means approachable prices for often rare wines from producers like Austria’s Gut Oggau and SA’s Vinous Heroin Society.

But if you’re not eating in, it works just like any other wine shop – only it’s minuscule (Buchan reckons 10 to 12 square metres) and inside a parking garage. Plus, you can also order online for pick-up.

La Cave Garage
38 Mcilwraith Place, Melbourne

Hours:
Thu to Sat 5pm–10pm

lacavegarage.shop