Feeling groovy at Ovolo South Yarra
The latest Ovolo brings the fun factor to Melbourne’s chicest shopping and lifestyle precinct.
The area around Toorak Road and Chapel Street in South Yarra has the cachet of being Melbourne’s chicest shopping and lifestyle precinct. Now the fun factor has been returned to this corner with Ovolo, the brand that brings an individual edge to each hotel in its suite of properties from Hong Kong to Australia. For the South Yarra rendition, Australian design agency Luchetti Krelle has delivered what it calls “mod meets retro-futurism”. If you can remember the 1970s, then this is them, but with a 21st-century sensitivity.
You enter to the side of its restaurant, Lona Misa, down to a reception desk below a wall stacked with visual sound: lava lamps, a gumball machine, film reels, film cameras. Grab a Mintie while waiting for the lifts, above which hang posters of a tattered Penguin cover of a Vonnegut novel and Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, while graffitied renditions of Freddie Mercury and the Mona Lisa are reflected in the glow from a neon firepit.
Ovolo has set 123 rooms on a rather small footprint, so they’re snug. Even on the middle of the size scale, the 21sq m of our Groovy is still cosy, but a king bed, generous bathroom and an armchair and small table don’t compromise the space. The suites give you more scope, including the top-of-the charts Rockstar suites, named John, Yoko, Sonny and Cher.
The key to making these rooms feel just right is the choice of decor and fit-out. Our Groovy’s palette is pastel sage and charcoal in small geometric patterns, set off by a burgundy wall behind shelving displaying icons of the era, and chrome bars securing the likes of the huge TV, on which you can Chromecast streamed content from your own device.
There is no evidence of single-use plastics; hydration comes from a filtered water tap. Booking direct with Ovolo gets you The Perks package, which as well as sundowner drinks and complimentary breakfast includes a grab-bag of small snacks and the minibar.
But stay peckish if trying Lona Misa. This place is guided by two wise Melbourne hands, Ian Curley of French Saloon and Kirk’s Wine Bar, and Shannon Martinez, from vegan hotspot Smith & Daughters. It’s the latter’s Latin heritage that pulsates throughout not just the food but the whole venue. One wall is chock-a-block, salon-style, with gilt-framed prints of Spanish masterpieces, across which is daubed in red, Metelo En La Boca (“Put it in your mouth”). And one can’t help but boogie on the banquette to the disco soundtrack.
Lona Misa is basically vegan, although adding cheese to marked items takes them into the realm of vegetarian, the norm for all Ovolo hotels in Australia and Asia this year. Any “meat” in a dish is “fake” — their word.
The food is an explosion of colour, texture and, once in your boca, taste. Dishes are designed to be shared, and we start with chargrilled baby corn with chilli and coffee mayonnaise, roasted padron peppers and manchego croquettes, and a potato tortilla with aioli. The meal’s centrepiece is a boulder of peri peri cauliflower, fire-roasted in the Josper (a very hot Spanish charcoal oven) and served with a spicy chimichurri. It’s an exciting dish, balanced by charred baby cos in a green goddess crema.
After that, sleep comes easily and long, the blockout blind in our room doing its job 100 per cent. Breakfast is in Lona Misa’s companion cafe, with a simple selection of Spanish favourites, even sourdough-supported smashed avo presented under its former name, guacamole.
A gym across the road is available for guests; Ovolo doesn’t even have a pool. But it does have a pool table, in a basement co-working space that’s just as funky as upstairs.
If you worry you might look out of place among all this reimagined retro, fear not. Around the corner in Chapel Street is a string of smart boutiques. Grab something from Marimekko or Gorman and you’ll feel right at home.
Jeremy Bourke was a guest of Ovolo Hotels.
-
In the know
Ovolo South Yarra is at 234 Toorak Road, Melbourne. From $279 a night for Go Go rooms; $750 for Rockstar suites. Guests who book direct with the hotel get The Perks package of breakfast, in-room snacks and minibar, plus sundowner drinks.