Kewpie Bar, Fitzroy

Years after she first visited, Sylvia has discovered Kewpie Bar.  When she first was there, it was called Bimbos and she was too young to be walking or talking.  The building still has a giant kewpie doll high on the facade of the building.  And thee days Sylvia enjoys their pizzas.  I on the other hand really enjoy going to Fitzroy.  I lived there many year ago so now I get all nostalgic when I return.

We first visited when Sylvia was interested in the $5 pizzas.  That is pretty cheap in this day and age where the cost of living just rises and rises at a ridiculous rate.  This Margherita pizza is simply topped with sugo, basil and mozzarella.  Sylvia has had many Magherita pizzas in her time and loved this one.

I had the Poncho pizza, topped with sugo, Mexican beans, corn chips, mozzarella, sour cream and paprika.  I loved the presentation with the corn chips arranged like circling sharks.  And it tasted great.  The beans were scattered sparingly but it meant that the base was crisp and there were plenty of flavour.

We went back a week ago and tried a couple of different pizzas.  This time I went for one of the couple of vegetarian pizzas that cost $8 rather than $5.  The Superveg wqas topped with pesto, spinach, mushroom, cherry tomato, jalapenos, feta, mozzarella, and dukkah.  It was nice but seemed light on the feta and more generous with the jalapenos.  I preferred the Poncho. 

Sylvia tried the Patate pizza which had caramelised onion, roasted potato, mozzarella, parmesan and rosemary.  The onion was like blobs of an onion jam.  Sylvia did not like it.  It was nice pizza but not as nice as some other potato pizzas we have had.  We discussed the bases being less like the pizza dough we are used to from takeaway pizza.  I think it was more than just flour, yeast, salt and sugar.  More processed in some way but nice.

We also ordered the garlic bread.  It was a classic old fashioned garlic bread that I used to have as a kid: soft baguettes lots of melty garlicky butter between them  The sort you have to break pieces off and they ooze butter.  So good!
.  

Like its previous incarnation Bimbos, Kewpie still has a lot of kewpie doll artwork.  This tattooed kewpie above seems very zeitgeisty

After our two visits sitting by the window, we discovered a more night time area with a plane, fake plants, bird cages, mirror balls and kewpie dolls.  We had two kewpie dolls on canes hanging by our window in the bedroom I shared with my sister as a kid.  But not like this.  These are so quirky and fun.

I was curious about the connection between Bimbos and Kewpie so I googled it and found a Broadsheet article from 2021 about the venue changing owners after being shut for 2 years during the pandemic after a fire.  I never liked the name Bimbos.  I preferred it when it was the Punters Club during my student days when I lived in Fitzroy.  Good times.  Much as changed since then.
 

We had never heard of crullers in mystudent days.  Now they are sold by Moon Cruller in Rose Street, a project of Lune Bakery.  We were visiting Moon Cruller before eating at Kewpie.  Sylvia had money set aside to buy some for Fathers Day.

Another change is this restaurant called the Rice Queen over the pedestrian lights on Brunswick Street.  It looks quite interesting but is very different from the second hand furniture store where I bought a desk as a student.  I still work on that desk today.

Another change is the Fitzroy Nursery.  It has been there for so long with its quirky steel art gate but now it has remodelled, the gate has gone and it has extended to a second store across the street.

There are many stores that I miss on Brunswick Street such as Grub Street Bookstore, Scally and Trombone, and Polyester music store.  But I can still walk down the street and peek into interesting looking shops.

There has been a lot of fun street art around Brunswick Street over the years, though I do not remember any as a student.  This smoking tree is on the wall on the corner of Westgarth Street where Retro Cafe used to be.  The owners had sold The Fitz and moved to a new cafe down the street.  But Retro Cafe is no longer there.  The building is now home to Gogyo which specialises in ramen.

I also enjoy walking around the historic terrace houses on the nearby streets.  Traditionally workers cottages, they were reduced to slums before Fitzroy was gentrified and became very des res.  (I am sure I told the story before of moving to Fitzroy and my dad bringing my grandmother to visit to reassure her it was no longer the haunt of gangsters.)  They have fancy parapets, and cast iron verandahs that are a few footsteps from the wrought iron fences.  These days there are many signs supporting the Voice to Parliament referendum that is coming up in weeks.

As someone with a long memory of Fiztroy, it seems odd that reviews call Bimbos a Brunswick Street institution that has been carried over into Kewpie bar.  To me it will always be the Punters Club which recently became Bimbos.  But I like the way it is developing as Kewpie and we plan to be back for more cheap pizzas.

Kewpie Bar
376 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy Victoria Australia
Web: https://kewpiefitzroy.com.au/