Co-Lab Pantry is an online retail hub that is bringing some of Victoria’s finest foodstuffs and drinkables to your door – which is pretty convenient considering a trip to the culinary capital is off the menu for the foreseeable future. The newly launched foodie platform is brimming with high-end staples including restaurant-made condiments such as Four Pillars’ Breakfast Negroni Marmalade, Fancy Hanks’ Jalapeno and Peach hot sauce and Gin Mayo from St Ali, which is precisely as it sounds – gin and mayonnaise – the perfect accompaniment for fried chicken (or eating straight from the tube). In addition to sauces, Co-Lab Pantry is slinging a selection of heat-and-eat meals (helloooo Drumplings’ famous cheeseburger dumplings), ready-to-sip cocktails and other such niceties including La Tortilleria’s tortilla chips, choc-chip cookie dough from Melbourne’s Piccolina Gelateria and some seriously tasty salted butter from the legendary Pepe Saya.

The concept for Co-Lab Pantry was born from the chaos reined down by COVID-19 and was developed by Danielle Lebon, Natasha Buttigieg and Avin Chadee. The collaborators combined their expertise in retail, hospitality and digital marketing to create an online community focussed on ‘Food for Good’, ultimately bringing the hospo venues and producers together in one virtual retail space to survive lockdown. Our southern friends are hurting right now so if you’re keen to show your support in a tangible way (read eat Messina’s chocolate hazelnut spread on a spoon straight out of the jar), then jump over here to start shopping. The food you create will taste even sweeter with a side of self satisfaction, plus you get to avoid supermarkets. That’s a double win. Is now a good time to mention Father’s Day is fast approaching? Well, it is – Sunday September 6, just in case you needed a little reminder.