You’ll find it whipped into creamy butter to spread on dense house rye bread and pickled in a bright salad of cabbage, apricots and pine nuts. It’s served as borscht, of course – the purple soup that has sustained nations for aeons. It even comes in beer form, thanks to the Gold Coast’s Lost Palms who has brewed it into a cracking sour ale that really is pretty in pink.

While it’s not all about the humble beetroot at Little Odessa, its sweet- earthy nourishing charms are on full display throughout a menu that will see Melbourne through the darkest months.

This quietly stylish, cosy little Eastern European wine bar hidden off bustling Brunswick St has stolen our hearts not only with its paean to the purple vegetable, but with big-hearted hospitality that’s open-armed welcoming and warm.

Brother and sister Stefan and Sofia Soltys celebrate their Ukrainian heritage here with pierogi filled with cabbage and potato that are hefty and heart- warming and completely delicious, and genius fried pickles seasoned with dill salt that are the new best friend to a beer, and in a layered honey cake that’s sweet and chewy and light and perfect alongside a shot of herbal liqueur from western Bohemia called Becherovka.

That borscht gets my Georgian friend’s tick of approval, the rustic dice of parsnip, carrot and beetroot adding weight to the juicy soup topped with dill-flecked sour cream – “yep, it’s just like we’d have at home” – while buttermilk-poached pork comes on fat potato pancakes (Hungarian placki) with a dollop of savoury prune jam.

There’s Czech Budvar on tap, Georgian wines in the fridge, and Ukrainian vodka to sip by candlelight.

Little Odessa is a lovely bar that’s like nothing else around. Amazing value and generous of spirit, it’s a hearty party for the soul. Be still my beeting heart.