Geelong’s top food scene power players
The brains behind some of the Geelong and the Surf Coast’s best-loved eateries have opened up on the the secret sauce that keeps people coming back.
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From ornate cake decorations to innovative restaurant concepts and the height of fine dining, Geelong’s foodie scene has something for everyone.
Splatter Cheese Bar is one of Geelong West’s most innovative newcomers.
Tennille Meisel and Jo Bangles offer a raft of 15 types of cheeses in a variation of the classic sushi train.
Ms Bangles said the idea evolved from her business of selling cheese platters to hungry punters and music festivals.
Through Covid, they began selling cheese platters online, and the vision for a bricks and mortar eatery was born.
These days it’s a destination for travellers.
Ms Bangles said 60 per cent of customers travelled from out-of-town just to try it.
“We know we’re bringing people into Geelong and into Pako,” she said.
“We’ve had people from all over the world come to visit us.”
Through Covid and the move to online retail, social media has proven key with connecting to audiences online.
For Cakesmith owner Emily Ditcham, whose business boasts 7000 Instagram followers, it’s been a great way to connect with customers.
The Ryrie St favourite has been serving the region for more than five years, but Ms Ditcham said Covid opened up a completely new market.
“We could reach a whole group of people that we would never have been able to reach in the past,” she said.
“We were going further afield to places like Bell Post Hill, Lovely Banks and to Torquay.”
Ms Ditcham said her most popular offering was a milk chocolate mousse cake with a raspberry lemon centre, but fudge cakes are also on the rise.
“I’ve always wanted to offer restaurant quality cakes to have at home,” she said.
“When you buy a cake, you want to see where your money has been put in the quality of ingredients, the way it tastes, the texture and the fact that it’s made by someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Tom McGrath and Josh Friend - Bomboras, Pholklore, The Kyn
Business partners Tom McGrath and Josh Friend are the brains behind some of the Geelong and the Surf Coast’s best-loved eateries.
The pair run beachfront Bomboras Torquay together, popular Vietnamese street food restaurant Pholklore with Mr Friend’s brother Dominic and The Kyn with business partner Yasmin Burton.
Mr McGrath, who has been in hospitality for years, said the businesses wouldn’t work without the team behind them.
“We’ve been able to expand by including other people and giving them ownership in the businesses,” he said.
Mr McGrath said in small coastal towns, success was built around connecting with the community.
“People still love to see the person who owns the business working it themselves, whether you’re pulling the beer or making the coffee,” he said.
“We’re in there every day, being at the coalface as a business. It’s probably a lot of work on our end, but we’re involved in every part of it.”
Andrew Noseda - Queenscliff Distillery, Apollo Bay Distillery and the Great Ocean Road and Queenscliff Brewhouses
Otway Brewing director, Andrew Noseda has led the way in boutique beer production on the southwest coast.
Queenscliff Distillery, Apollo Bay Distillery and the Great Ocean Road and Queenscliff Brewhouses are among the company’s hugely successful venues.
The company announced a $5m extension to a historic Queenscliff hotel, now the town’s brewhouse, in 2019.
“We have about 450 whiskeys on pour at the moment; there’s about 80 gins and 50 rums,” Mr Noseda told the Geelong Advertiser at the time.
“We are trying to offer a unique experience in spirits. There is no venue (in Victoria) outside Melbourne that has this beverage offering.”
The company also touted a Otway Estate cellar door “coming soon”.
“Soon you will be able to visit our Otway Estate Cellar Door to try all our products and to see our brewers and distillers in action,” it read.
Nick and Gemma Watts - King of the Castle
New owners at a much-loved Pako staple took the reins just 10 days before a six-week lockdown was announced last year.
But Gemma and Nick Watts took advantage of the quiet period, remodelling the cafe.
Changes included a mural, installation of a cool room, doubling the size of the kitchen and the covering of the back deck.
“It’s a big, open, chilled space,” Gemma said earlier this year.
“On the weekend we can be so busy but it‘s still got that vibe where it’s relaxed, come-and-enjoy-breakfast. It’s welcoming.”
Earlier this year the pair told the Addy they wanted to ensure the popular cafe carried on its legacy, just “tweaking a few things” when they came on board.
“We are predominantly a cafe and that works, people love that. And I don’t want to come away from something and take away from customers to add something else that doesn’t necessarily add to the business model,” Gemma told the Addy in May.
Nathan Johnston - Cartel Coffee
One of Geelong’s great coffee success stories, Nathan Johnston has long been at the forefront of the local scene.
Mr Johnson founded Cartel Roasters Cafe in Breakwater in 2008 before opening cafes in the CBD and in Melbourne.
“We have got some of the best coffees and teas in the world,” he said after he first opened the doors to Geelong’s Brew Bar.
“We wanted to create a space to showcase them, to take the time to share in the hard work that has gone into making them.”
Mr Johnston has said he sourced products directly from countries like Uganda and Kenya to offer specialty-grade coffees.
“I love everything about coffee. Everything,” he said in 2014.
“It’s almost a spiritual thing for me. It’s a very important part of my life, not only in business but personally.”
Doji Singer and Andrew Pec - Bean Squeeze
Doji Singer and Andrew Pec capitalised on the region’s love of drive-through coffee in 2006.
Mr Singer was in the United Stated in 2004 when he stumbled across a drive-through coffee shop, later pitching the idea to his friend back home in Torquay.
The venture – dubbed Bean Squeeze – has expanded to 10 locations across the city.
The pair would practice their hospitality skills in Mr Singer’s garage after they acquired their first Mercer St site.
“We both always loved drinking coffee, but didn’t really have any experience in making it,” Mr Pec said in 2013.
“So we set up a coffee machine in the garage and started to think about how we could serve amazing quality coffee and still do it really fast.”
Cam O’Keefe - Westend
Geelong publican Cam O’Keefe is at the forefront of Geelong CBD’s dining scene.
The publican opened Westend, the redeveloped Eureka Hotel, in 2019.
“I think Geelong has come so far with its food and wine scene and it’s amazing to think of what it will be in five years’ time and 10 years’ time,” he told the Addy in 2019.
“We’ve seen a lot of great venues open and I think a lot of that is being driven by Melburnians coming down.
They’re bringing with them Melburnian demands of having good coffee and good places to eat.”
He attributed Westend’s success to quality food offerings produced with fresh ingredients.
In 2018 Mr O’Keefe was crowned Australia’s Young Restaurateur of the year.
He also took the lockdowns as an opportunity to move into online wine retailing.
“For us that was a revenue stream that was quite important during the pandemic,” he said at the time. “It probably opened us up to a large range of customers that probably didn’t know the Westend brand.”
Lyndsay and David Sharp - Jack Rabbit Vineyard, Leura Park Estate, the Curlewis Golf Club, Flying Brick Cider Co
No Geelong or Bellarine foodie list would be complete without Lyndsay and David Sharp.
The hospitality heavy hitters, who relocated to Barwon Heads in the 90s, own Jack Rabbit Vineyard, Leura Park Estate, the Curlewis Golf Club and Wallington’s Flying Brick Cider Co.
In 2007 the couple, who have backgrounds in accounting, marketing and farming, bought Leura Park on the Bellarine Peninsula.
“It was an organic growth and it’s been a baptism of fire. We’re always learning on the run,” Mrs Sharp told News Corp in 2015.
“We realised there were parallels with craft cider and wine — the same crushing of fruit, similar tannins and simple fermentation. Six months of the year the big stainless steel fermenters sit dormant. We had a feeling cider was going to be the next big thing.”
The couple also operate a win range under the Yes Said the Seal brand.
Aaron Turner - Hot Chicken Project, Igni, Tacos y Liquor
Geelong chef Aaron Turner is the brains behind Little Malop’s Hot Chicken Project and woodfire tasting menu eatery Igni.
In 2021 Mr Turner opened 20-odd taqueria Tacos y Liquor, a love letter to Los Angeles taco trucks.
The award-winning chef has also authored two cookbooks, his second paying tribute to Nashville’s famous fried chicken.
“It’s essentially a love letter to Nashville and hot chicken,” Turner said last year.
“When you’re eating fried chicken in the south (of America) it takes on a whole life of its own and the story itself is really crazy.”
Koryn Beckingham - Smash Cakes
Torquay woman Koryn Beckingham’s smash cakes have proven a huge hit.
Turning her back on a 17-year hairdressing career to focus on her cake making business, her creations are easily identifiable.
Decorated in a thin chocolate shell and filled with lollies and treats, Ms Beckingham said she needs to look no further than her family for help.
“I am Willie Wonka to everybody in the family. They love coming here,” she said earlier this year.
The cakes were originally envisioned as a fresh take on a unicorn cake for her niece’s first birthday party and the smash cake technique took her “a good six months” to master.
“And then it was like nothing; you didn’t have to master anything, you just pour it in, let it set, take it out,” she said.
“But for six months I was making two or three snapped shells at a time until I got it right and then I was like, ‘It’s set! We can sell it’.”
Mark Oates - Panache Cafe and Creperie
Now a Geelong food staple, Panache was inspired by a backpacking trip.
Mark Oates founded Panache in Market Square more than two decades ago.
Since 1995 the popular local chain has grown to three franchises and three company stores.
Oates first discovered crepes while backpacking through Europe in the 1980s, eventually bringing them to Geelong.
Over the years, cafes opened up in Queenscliff, Waurn Ponds, Leopold, Eastern Beach and Geelong West.
Barry Iddles - 360Q
The driving force behind Queenscliff’s landmark 360Q restaurant, Barry Iddles is no stranger
When he took over the harbourside venue in 2016, it had been lying dormant for three years.
“Prior to owning 360Q I had an amazing restaurant, Bamboo, in Rye, Elk Restaurant at Falls Creek and also ran the food and beverage operation at the prestigious Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club,” he said earlier this year.
“I’m a hands-on owner, chef, venue manager and event co-ordinator.”
He started his career as a high-end chef working at The Copper Pot in 1975, and has worked across the country in the years since.
In addition to the popular Queenscliff restaurant, he’s worked for Australia’s biggest names owning two catering companies.
“I learnt to mix with up to the top end and down to the bottom end,” he told the Addy earlier this year.
“To me people were people and it’s just really appreciating everybody. Everybody’s got a right to be here.”
Dan Hunter - Brae
Birregurra’s Brae has consistently been listed among the world’s top dining destinations.
Owner and chef Dan Hunter opened the famous eatery in 2013 as his first solo venture.
Before the Birregurra opening, he was head chef Dunkeld’s Royal Mail, in the Grampians for six years.
The restaurant is run with his partner and Brae operations manager Julianne Bagnato.
“For a restaurant of this type and the type of business we operate, it’s pretty idyllic in many aspects, not just its location but also its availability and accessibility,” he told gt magazine in 2022.
“I guess it wasn’t until I started cooking in a restaurant that wasn’t in a major city and was situated in a rural environment that I saw the possibility of the connection to place and the ability to produce a cuisine based very much on your geographical environment.
Located on an organic farm, the restaurant promotes sustainable farming and eating.
“We try and bring a new style of luxury to dining, but often it’s with ingredients that are very recognisable; the food’s not broken down so much it’s unrecognisable,” he said.
“I like the food to be very natural, to be obvious what it is and hopefully give people the opportunity to have the best version of that food they’ve ever tasted.”
Gorge Camorra
Geelong cocktail king Gorge Camorra capitalised on his 2o years of experience in nightclubs and hospitality, opening speak-easy-style 18th Amendment bar on Little Malop St in 2017.
The award-winning barman has since opened sister-venues Manhattan Bar and Non-disclosure bar.
Earlier this year he was named in the top 100 influential people by Australian Bartender Magazine.
“With Little Malop St the way it is, it’s perfect timing. This is a great concept, we’ve got a great crew coming over with a lot of experience and we just want to lift that level, lift the bar,” he told the Addy ahead of 18th Amendment’s opening in 2017.
“It’s an awesome spot, with Coffee Cartel next door winning awards. Now it’s time for our bars to step up the game a little bit more.”
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