O’Connell’s Hotel is an iconic heritage Melbourne’s dining establishment, featuring stunning architecture, charming dining spaces and a top notch menu. When it comes to a business lunch O'Connell's has you covered. If you're coming here on a Friday afternoon plan a good 2 hours in the diary and tell the PA to advise customers that "you're in a meeting" for the rest of the afternoon. The World Loves Melbourne was invited along for lunch and we were highly impressed. Like other institutions in Melbourne right now they are adjusting to the Coronavirus situation. When we dined there was "social distancing" in place but now the restrictions are more severe. O'Connell's Hotel is currently closed until further notice as at March 2020, but we want to celebrate them and look forward to their return.
Dinner en Rouge returned for its second year for a feast of reds; a lavish five course dinner in celebration of the release of Levantine Hill lovingly aged, single-vineyard 2017 Levantine Hill Estate red wines. We were invited along to experience this joyous release, albeit in an atmosphere of soberness given recent worldwide events (with appropriate social distancing).
During these challenging times we need to be reaching out to help each other. One way we can do this is to help the health workers who are working around the clock treating and testing those with COVID-19. A brilliant initiative is to "adopt a health worker" and assist them with tasks they struggle to get time to do like groceries, cooking, cleaning, help with childcare, feeding pets etc where appropriate (in line with Government directives). Please check out the link here to this brilliant articleThe Initiative Helping Australian Healthcare Workers Impacted by COVID-19by Lauren Williamson in Marie Claire with reference to Western Australia but other state based groups are starting up (there's a Victorian group attached to this link).
Helping hospo during this COVID-19 challenging time is imperative. We all love the Melbourne restaurant and hospo scene and we want to help local business continue to be strong and viable. As you are aware, restaurants and cafes have already taken a huge hit due to the increase of self-isolation. Here are some Melbourne restaurants and companies who have adapted new strategies to try and get through this crisis that we can support. I wish I could include everyone as we are getting alerted to about 30 initiatives a day (check your favourite restaurants and their intiatives).
Fire up your belly, St Hugo has marshalled some of Melbourne’s top restaurants to create a series of special Formula 1 pairings and offerings, available at icons Entrecôte, Grossi Florentino, Rockpool and Sake from March 9 to 23. We have been invited along to a dinner atEntrecôte to raise a glass to the limited edition 2016 St Hugo Coonawarra Shiraz and St Hugo’s new Fine and Rare Collection, hosted by St Hugo Chief Winemaker Peter Munro. Here are the details of the exclusive Culinary Racing Regale offerings featuring the St Hugo fine-dining tour around the world (get your tickets).
Prahran Market is leading the way in terms of new initiatives, tours and in terms of sustainability with its Green Earth Soil food created from waste from the market. The World Loves Melbourne was invited along to check out a new food tour and the sustainability initiatives of Prahran Market along with four leading Melbourne influencers. We visted some of the world class stalls such as Sweet Greek Shop, Nahedas Choice, Paddlewheel Prahran, Libertea, Damian Pike Mushroom Man, The Food House, Blackhearts & Sparrows, and The Cheese Shop Deli. Following our tour with Declan, we were treated with an extraordinary brunch cooked by celebrity chef Tobie Puttock.
Wine by Sam is a must visit winery in Seymour, with Sam Plunkett one of the finest winemakers in the country. Have you ever travelled up the Hume Highway looking for a winery to stop by and indulge? We highly recommend a visit to Wine by Sam on your tour. It's amazing to see the progress of Wine by Sam in a relatively short period of time as one of the best wineries in Victoria. As Wine by Sam celebrates its seventh year, founders Sam Plunkett and Bronwyn Dunwoodie have proven the once relatively unknown region of Seymour is a big hitter in Australia’s wine industry.
Nathan Buckley has collaborated with Wolf Blass to launch the upcoming AFL season at an intimate event at Treasury Wines HQ. Nathan is not only a great coach of Collingwood but also a man who is not afraid to open up about his life, and to where his priorities lie. In a revealing launch event, Nathan opened up about the demands of football and how he keeps himself balanced in life. For example during the off season he doesn't obsess himself with football, but has a large chunk of relaxing downtime, knowing that the season ahead will be intense.
