I’m sitting in a hidden warehouse that looks only half finished in a thick winter jacket with a plate of chicken hearts in front of me that I can only just make out through the clouds of mist that is my breath.

It’s cold, so very cold, and while my fingers are slowly losing the ability to sense touch I wonder if hypothermia is too great a price to pay to eat at the hottest new restaurant in town.

With its critical mass of beards and beanies eating offal washed down with nonintervention wines, Host and its band of early adopters pirouette on the cliff edge of parody, and if it wasn’t all so artfully earnest and so self-consciously Brunswick, Host could be very good.

But first — and it’s on its way, I’m assured — it needs heating if this warehouse conversion is to survive a Melbourne winter.

But until then, it’s a perplexing move seating the handful of early tables on a sub 8 degree Friday night in the doorway to bear the brunt of every Antarctic blast.

It’s but one example of inhospitality this night that makes the restaurant’s name all the more ironic, especially when we left two hours later too cold to contemplate dessert (not that we were offered a menu) the restaurant was still but half full.

But that conversion is surely handsome — reflecting owners Majda and Ned Rahmanovic’s pre-hospo lives as designers — with its open kitchen, timber archway-framed booth seating and striking graphic art on the, yes, exposed brick walls.

And the food is, on the whole, clever, alluring, original and well executed, thanks to chef Florian Ribul who was last seen cooking at South Yarra’s short-lived Enquire Within, where his love of offal and pushing boundaries saw him serve up brain popcorn.

Here, his calling card is “blood butter”, an equally divisively named dish that is, however, surprisingly elegant, where a plum-coloured dip that’s less iron bite and more creamy comfort is served studded with salty bay-dusted crisps with which to scoop it up ($10).

Those chicken hearts aren’t bad, either, with a sprinkling of finger lime that adds a burst of acid to the pepperberry-dusted nuggets served on individual witlof canoes to sail into your mouth. They will challenge many, for sure, but at just $10 even the unwary should give them a go.

Shaved and roasted chestnuts add winter crunch to toasted brussels sprouts that are only enhanced further by the chestnut puree they are served on ($12).

Crisp lardo adds smoky heft to what is a mighty fine side dish, but was served as an entree — one of the confusing structural issues of this meal that came to the table as a glacial procession of individual dishes to share.

A plate of pine mushrooms, pan tossed with butter and rosemary and served on a silken celeriac puree, was excellent, though at $26 and little bigger than an entree, expensive.

Much better value to be found in the O’Connor steak, where smoked potato puree is the perfect partner to the expertly cooked purple-pink sirloin.

A grilled baby gem lettuce dressed with a sea-salty oyster emulsion and finished with wakame dust shows a clever plate any which way you look ($32).

Likewise, a crisp-skinned fillet of rock flathead showed a steady, experienced hand on the pan, the sweet, flaky flesh teamed with creamy squid ink and slivers of crunchy black radish ($28).

Anchovy and cime di rape — a little seen Italian leafy green — make brilliant bedfellows in another plate, where the anchovy is used to create a bagna cauda sauce that adds salty depth to the charred bitter stalks.

Pumpkin seeds finish a dish that, while confusingly listed as a main, was nonetheless very good ($16).

Though the booth seating is comfortable, the flimsy paper napkins are at odds with the elegant glassware and a dozen-strong wine list that heads quickly north of a $50-a-bottle baseline, while service was as frosty as the room, lacking intuition and engagement, with plates left uncleared, wine unpoured, water empty.

And though it didn’t end up on the bill, the menu lists bread and butter at $4 a head, which would be wrong even if it were memorable.

But it’s good to see an all local beer focus and the quintet of cocktails on the list — a “boozy” negroni, a “dry” martini or “long” manzanilla cooler — rounded out by a short showing of amaro and vermouth is well chosen, if somewhat affected.

Host needs work, but many elements — some fire, some ice — are there. It could settle into being the great casual diner of its ambitions. Just bring your own beanie.

Originally published on news.com.au