New restaurant openings in Melbourne April 2023: Cityfields Chadstone
The restaurant crew behind a South Melbourne favourite will open Chadstone’s first-ever rooftop bar. Here’s when to expect first drinks.
Food
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A restaurant that’ll be home to Chadstone’s first rooftop bar has opened at the shopping behemoth.
Cityfields opened last week, and was the final venue to join its mega entertainment hub, The Social Quarter.
But you’ll still have to wait one more month to visit Chadstone’s first rooftop bar.
From early May, diners will be able to visit the terrace dining room and bar and garden, boasting stellar views of the city skyline.
The all-day eatery, run by South Melbourne’s Half Acre crew, will span across two levels — serving Euro snacks, drinks at a public bar, a lunch and dinner menu as well as something for the kids.
Co-owner Adam Wright-Smith said the team had wanted to open another venue for sometime and instantly fell in love with the location.
“Cityfields is a concept that we’ve had in mind for some time now, and it was important for us to find the right space to give the idea the home it deserved,” he said.
The same food offering will be served across both levels, and will include woodfire steaks, daily-made pastas, kingfish crudo, cheeseburgers, with a roving dessert cart dedicated to cakes and tarts.
Cityfields, Chadstone Shopping Centre, 1341 Dandeong Rd
Lamaro’s new look
Long lunch institution Lamaro’s has seen a changing of the guard.
New hospo outfit Artisan Leisure Group has taken over the South Melbourne pub after a six-year reign by Paul Dimattina and acclaimed chef Geoff Lindsay.
While he no longer holds a majority stake in the business, the Western Bulldogs star turned hospo kingpin is still closely involved as the group’s chief operating officer and pub’s general manager.
“Nothing’s changing, I don’t want anyone to think big change is afoot — we still have the best schnitzel in Melbourne,” he said.
Lindsay has moved back to Bali for family reasons and is no longer involved in Lamaro’s, but still runs the Yarck Hotel with Dimattina.
Sydney chef and TV personality Phillip Davenport (Hugo’s Bondi, Bali’s Ku De Tah) will move in as executive chef, overseeing a kitchen run by head chefs Jan Von Piechowski and Kim Tharnchai.
Davenport will shake up the menu, adding a French twist to the pub classics, while honouring Lindsay’s South East Asian flavours.
“I’ve been warned to keep a couple of the classics on. We are keeping the duck curry, there’d be a rebellion if we took that off,” Davenport said.
Newcomers include chargrilled octopus with harissa and saffron, Indonesian pressed lamb, as well as a prawn roll and confit duck burger.
Artisan Leisure Group is made up of Dimattina and Lamaro’s partner Dale Curtis, as well as Darren Brusnahan, Sam Jayathalika and Ed Malkoun.
Last year the group made a play at buying the pub’s freehold, but owner Pam Lamaro backtracked on the sale and remains the freehold owner and landlord.
Lamaro’s Hotel, 273-279 Cecil St, South Melbourne, lamaroshotel.com.au
Hank’s Bagelry opens in Armadale
A snag in supermarket white won’t cut the mustard for Armadale’s well-heeled.
So Hank’s Bagelry has found a delicious workaround, giving our favourite hardware store snack the ultimate glow up for opening week.
The Bunnings-inspired bagel will be sold for $3 – 50c cheaper than the real deal – with proceeds donated to Armadale Primary School.
The creation is bouncing with pork and fennel sausage, caramelised onions, mustard mayo and tomato relish.
Chef Kevin Middleton said the three-day only special was all in the name of fun.
“One of the best parts of going to Bunnings is the sausage sizzle, so I decided to take that idea and with our version make it slightly fancier,” he said.
“It still has the same core, just adjusted to a grilled pork and fennel sausage, caramelised onions and tomato relish.”
Hank’s is a new venue byBeatty Group, behind neighbouring cafe Mammoth and Elsternwick’s Copycat Restaurant and Bar.
Adele McMurray, of Copycat, has recently joined the team in ownership. Co-owner Nick Beerens said he has been wanting to open a New York-style bagelry since visiting the Big Apple as an 18-year-old.
“I wanted to have that same experience here in Melbourne and have had my eye on the ... space for quite some time now,” he said.
Savion will supply five bagel flavours, including plain, seeded, onion, challah and gluten free.
Some must-try bagels include the classic cream cheese, beetroot and gin cured salmon, and more adventurous bacon, folded egg and harissa, and lamb meatloaf.
Hank’s also makes three American-style shakes, Maple-iced lattes and cookies.
The Bunnings Bagel will be available between April 26 and 28. Those who visit on April 26 will also get a free coffee.
Hank’s, 13 Beatty Ave, Armadale, hanksarmadale.com.au
Werribee lands wild new sanger bar
Are sandwiches the new suburban burger craze?
Chef Jon Ford thinks so, which is why he opened Werribee’s new sanger shop Tuckers.
The takeaway-only shop opened on Good Friday to more fanfare than expected.
“We thought by opening on the long weekend, we’d have a few people in, but we had queues 20 minutes before we opened and they didn’t stop all day,” he said.
Tuckers makes 12 different flavours, including breakfast, fresh, toasted and fried sandwiches.
The biggest sellers are the McTucker; which riffs on the bacon and egg morning staple, and an ode to Sunday roast which sees a toasted beef dipped roll; the meat sopped in a 48-hour stock, served with caramelised onion and a dipping jus on the side.
Ford also plays to his Liverpool roots with a playful British spin on baked bean mayonnaise and a crumbed potato bake sandwich.
“Vegetarian sandwiches are always made up of fried mushrooms or eggplant – I didn’t want to do the exact same as everyone else.”
Ford, who runs Tuckers with Mitch Knight and Tristan Angelini, is also behind trailblazing local venues Teddy Picker and Corked Wine Bar and has been working to fill the suburb’s gourmet sandwich void since last year.
“The sandwich craze is everywhere, all over Melbourne. It’s the new burger trend,” he said.
“Werribee needed one, and it’s about time we had one.”
Ford named the venue after the local Tucker family, who owned a milk bar on the same Watton St site in the early ’80s.
“The site before Beaurepaires, in the early 1980s, was a house with a milk bar out the front and it was owned by a man called Max Tucker,” he said.
“That milk bar was very popular with the locals. We still have old photos of the building and the family have come down. They loved what we’d done to the place.”
Sadly Max Tucker passed away last year, but his legacy lives in the business.
“They were famous for their shakes, so we have put the ‘Shilling Shakes’ on our menu with classic flavours such as vanilla, chocolate and strawberry,” he said.
Ford is also working on turning part of the site into a live music venue, which he hopes to open this spring.
Tuckers Sandwiches, 92 Watton St, Werribee
Pentridge opens criminally good wine bar
Reading the bottle list at a wine bar can be intimidating at the best of times, but sommelier Liinaa Berryhas a solution.
“The wine list is written more like a book of wine,” she said.
Fresh from a stint at South Australia’s luxe Mount Lofty House, the Melbourne native is back in the city’s north to lead the drinks program at Olivine – a new wine bar at Coburg’s Pentridge entertainment hub.
The 100-seater will live inside the walls of the former jail; the heritage cells now housing a total of 500 bottles of new and old world wines.
Olivine will also be the first venue where Berry has built a wine list from scratch in her 10-year sommelier career.
“It’s not just another wine list. I wanted to create context and tell a story of place and time,” she said.
The list will be broken down into chapters – including an synopsis and epilogue – highlighting wine styles such as ‘bright and energetic’ and ‘medium bodied with spice’ over grape varieties.
Berry hopes to teach drinkers more about wine through educational tasting flights which showcase a winery’s different vintages or vineyards of the same grape.
“We’re absolutely here to educate, but with educating you have to be careful,” she said.
“Some people are out to just have a good time, so what I’ll be doing is educating without them realising. I want to create an emotion with wine that helps them remember.”
Berry has worked closely with head chef Thomas Woods to curate Olivine’s simple snack menu, which include small bites such as rock oysters bobbing in a peach mignonette dressing and pork fritters swiped in a French ravigote sauce.
Wood will also lead the kitchen at Pentridge’s on-site restaurant, North and Common, which will open in the next fortnight.
Olivine, 1 Pentridge Blvd, Coburg. Opening Friday April 14.
Restaurant’s wild new dishes
Dagwood dogs made with n’duja, bone marrow miso brulee, breakfast pavlova?
Richmond’s new all-day eatery isn’t shy of out-of-the-box creations.
Ms Parker is the brainchild of former Cumulus Inc and Amaru chef Steve Harry.
He’s behind a left of field menu which channels his North African roots while honouring Australia’s indigenous ingredients.
Curious bites include kangaroo tartare on a Vegemite cracker, n’duja (spicy spreadable salami) dagwood dogs, bone marrow on miso brûlée and a breakfast pavlova with sour apricots.
You’ll also find nuances of Egyptian, Ethiopian and Lebanese flavours in Harry’s cooking.
Former Marion Wine Bar sommelier Carlin Jackson is on drinks.
205 Bridge Rd, Richmond
All-star line up leads hot new restaurant
An all-star culinary line-up is behind the city’s hottest new restaurant.
Celebrity chef Mark Best and Vue de monde’s Michael Greenlaw will lead the charge at the Ritz-Carlton Melbourne and its flashy 80th-floor fine diner Atria, which opened to the general public for the first time on Saturday.
They’ll be supported by a brigade of talent, including Kay-Lene Tan as the hotel’s executive pastry chef and rising star Sarah Cremona (of Laura, Pt Leo Restaurant), who’ll work under Greenlaw as a chef de partie.
After seven years at Tonka, two as head chef, Tan said she was excited for a new chapter.
“Joining the Ritz-Carlton has allowed me to come back to the roots of what I am passionate about. It was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse,” she said.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of the opening team of an amazing hotel. Not many people get a chance like this.”
The move has allowed Tan and Cremona to come full circle. For Tan, it was a chance to revisit her classical French patisserie training, while it will let Cremona refine her skills with a team who share her foraging penchant.
“The fold of a hotel is a different beast itself. It’s a different ball game,” Cremona said.
The duo also have another thing in common.
Both were recipients of Melbourne Food and Wine’s Hostplus Hospitality Scholarship, awarded to rising industry talent. After taking home the prize in 2022, Cremona enlisted Best as her mentor. Unbeknown to her, Best had signed on as Ritz-Carlton Melbourne’s culinary director and he encouraged her to apply for the job.
“I’d like to go organically in the company. That’s where the scholarship comes in handy, as it’ll help round out my business and leadership skills.”
Atria, 650 Lonsdale St, Melbourne, ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/australia/melbourne/dining/atria
Why sky-high diner is like Succession
One of the city’s most anticipated restaurants of the year is opening this weekend.
Atria, the Ritz-Carlton Melbourne’s flashy 80th floor fine diner, has for the last fortnight only been available to hotel guests.
But from this Saturday, anyone can take the 46-second ride up to the top floor to
drink in those jaw-dropping views and eat their way through executive chef Michael Greenlaw’s produce-led menu.
And maybe live a little like they do in the TV-show, Succession.
“At the Ritz, the materials, design and luxury is understated. It’s a feeling, kind of like (the TV show) Succession,” culinary director and all-star chef Mark Best said.
“True wealth is not having any brand on it. The Ritz is like that. It’s that level of luxury and the way I like to cook, the way Michael likes to cook.”
Greenlaw was born in Western Australia but grew up in Lower Plenty in the city’s north east.
He began travelling abroad at 19, working in Dubai, London and New York including some of the world’s best restaurants including Bibendum in London, New York’s Giltin and Melbourne’s own Vue de monde.
At Atria, the avid forager and diver will showcase the best produce from land and sea (mainly from Victoria), including some unique trawls from Port Phillip Bay.
“Everyone will know snapper, flathead and whiting, but there are 31 species out there such as the Long snout Boarfish, which is my favourite sashimi fish. There’s also Grass Whiting and Banded Morwong,” he said.
While Greenlaw can’t dive commercially for Atria, he imparts his knowledge to local fisherman to secure ‘incredibly delicious’ catches for the restaurant.
“I want to use all ingredients and hero vegetarian dishes like the butternut and turnip terrine. We source our pumpkins from Ballarat,” he said.
“We use Khaki Campbell duck, instead of Pekin or Aylesbury crosses, and we’re one of the few to work directly with this new producer who is only doing this breed of duck.”
Atria offers an a la carte menu for guests, as well as a set menu for groups, with diners having the choice for sitting in the main room or along the 19-metre communal Victorian Ash timber bar overlooking the city.
Best said guests in these seats will be at eye-level with the chefs, and have the ability to ask questions about the food they are consuming.
As for whether Atria will be like any of our city’s other high-end establishments, Best said: “This city has more than enough room for restaurants putting in as much effort as we are.”
“Melbourne is spoiled for choice and some of those restaurants will be in our comparative or peer set, but we are doing our own thing and we have our own unique point of difference.”
Club giants peddle pizza in Prahran
Another slice of Italy is coming to Greville St, Prahran.
Rossi, a thriving Italian restaurant-meets-cocktail bar, will fill the void left by hospo-stayer Ladro Tap which has closed after 12 years on the strip.
Hospo gun Nick Young, of Pinchy’s lobster roll restaurant fame, will open the hybrid venue with business partners Ben White and Anthony Beltrame on Wednesday.
“It’s a food and cocktail bar with a pulse,” he said.
The trio are the brains trust behind Good Company Bar Group responsible for the revival of St Kilda party palace Riva (now Riviera Beach Club) and Prahran nightclubs Electric and The Emerson – but Young insisted Rossi wasn’t another club.
“In the States, there is a big movement to have entertainment (at restaurants),” he said.
“People are ordering bottles of champagne or whisky. They’re drinking like they’re in a nightclub, but this isn’t a nightclub – it’s dinner with a pulse.
“The idea is if you want to kick on after dinner, you can stay in the same venue. There’ll be DJs and live music.”
Vue de monde and Pinchy’s alumni chef Thibault Boggio will put a French spin on the Italian-focused menu, while Amalfi Coast native Gaetano Cioffi will take charge of woodfire pizzas.
“I think a family could come here for lunch or an early dinner,” Young said.
“It’ll also be a place for the ‘who’s who’ in the area.”
Rossi will be open for lunch, dinner and late-night food and drinks daily.
Rossi, opening April 5, 162 Greville St, Prahran
Ghosty’s Diner
Bendigo’s toasted sanger hotspot Ghosty’s Diner has been reborn. Owner Nick Styles has transformed the space to look like an American roadhouse, installing a food menu to match. Expect F. G. T sandwiches (that’s fried green tomatoes), punch bowl cocktails, minimal intervention wines and Castlemaine’s Love Shack Brewery beers on tap. Don’t worry, Ghosty’s signature three cheese melts are still around, as well as burgers, Southern Fried Chicken tenders and more.
35 View St, Bendigo
The Happy Mexican Rooftop
Abbotsford’s tiny taqueria has opened its second outpost on a rooftop overlooking the Queen Victoria Market. Head chef Jesus Rios will continue to sling the restaurants trademark tacos, alongside new dishes such as a Mexican prawn cocktail (Coctell de Camaron) and lime marinated octopus (Ceviche de Pulpo).
167 Franklin St, Melbourne
Blackstar Pastry
Sydney’s famous Blackstar Pastry is opening its third Melbourne store on Easter Saturday. Located in the old Money Order Office on Driver Lane, the new venue boasts a raft of new pastries including two croissants — a rose and pistachio filled with strawberry compote and hazelnut praline ganache and Pina Colada flavour — as well as a umami brioche packed with mushrooms and cheese and the Matcha loaded ‘Matcha Ceremony’ pastry.
Shop 4, 8 Driver Lane, Melbourne
Yan
Chapel St icon Yagiz will host its last service on April 6 to make way for Sydney’s Asian smokehouse Yan after Easter. Executive chef Ewa Goralewski and head chef Narada Kudiner will lead the kitchen, with the venue run by ex-Lucas Restaurant’s player Giovanni Rinaldi. Sydney’s core menu will be established at the South Yarra restaurant, while new menu items are developed for Melbourne.
22 Toorak Rd, South Yarra
Aussie DJ makes homecoming to open Cali-inspired eatery at Crown
He’s behind some of Los Angeles’ favourite night spots and now Melbourne DJ Grant Smillie is coming home to launch a California-inspired, day-to-night eatery at Crown Melbourne.
Lucy Liu chef opens first new restaurant in three years
He’s the chef behind a long-list of iconic Melbourne venues such as Stokehouse, Circa at the Prince, Taxi Dining Room and Lucy Liu. Now Michael Lambie is opening a new South East Asian city restaurant next month.