One of my favourite places in Ballarat is a local restaurant called Lola. The food is delicious but the space itself absolutely captures my heart. Maybe it’s because the wallpaper and so much of the decor reminds me of toile print which was one of the first things I associated with the word ‘elegant’. Maybe it’s because my mum collects blue and white Spode prints. Maybe its because I can sit in there alone and feel like I’m right where I’m meant to be.
The food is gorgeous. The thing I love the most about it is that no flavour or texture on a dish is put there to say the same thing as another. The dessert above, for example, had this amazing creaminess, then a mellow sweetness, then a sour sweetness, then the crackling sweetness of sherbert. Every mouthful had a journey. My mouth is watering right now remembering it. It was a statement, with no part being redundant. It was a story, and no part of it was boring or repeating itself. It was a classic fairy tale, every time I tasted it I knew what was coming but I wanted to re-experience it.
And in saying that I think I now understand why I love this place so much. Story. Someone has actually thought about the shape of the rooms and the placement of the windows and the counters so there is a story. Every chair, every table, every light, every cushion says something unique. Together they tell a story of human hearts, of elegance, of seeking out beauty, of doing things consciously with intent, of living with purpose. When I am sitting in that room, I feel like any person in it would feel like they are the lead character of the story. I certainly feel like the lead character in my own.
So maybe you will go to Lola now and you will stand in that room and maybe you won’t feel as I do when I stand there. Maybe you will. What I hope is that you go there, that you feel the open-heart of that place, that it leaves your own heart a little warmer, that it makes you want to seek beauty. Most of all, I hope you eat something there that makes you smile.
These pictures were from an afternoon tea I had with my sister Goldfields Girl. I took a bunch of pictures of her too that she will share soon on her blog.
This dress is an old one from Review that they gifted to me so I could do a blog post for them to help launch their online magazine.
Find out more about Lola or book a table here.
– L
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