Martini trolleys to mochi: A first look inside Melbourne’s mega new CBD food precinct

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Down a laneway in the city’s eastern district, a huge $200 million office, retail and hospitality development is nearing completion. And two venues are already open to the public.

A diverse new precinct for eating, drinking and venue-hopping is taking shape at the eastern end of Little Lonsdale Street, with the next stage of the 20-storey, $200 million Bennetts Lane development open now. The building soars behind 19th-century heritage brick facades and includes The Lane House apartment hotel, penthouses, offices, a basement bathhouse and a branch of Cobb Lane Bakery.

Joining the mix is TiVo, a first-floor aperitivo lounge and event space that aims to merge hotel lobby bar, after-work meeting place and dressy social club. “We are offering something different and memorable,” says Dave Kerr-Burrows, general manager of Talisman Group, which owns TiVo, Mile9 pizza in West Melbourne and Casa Chino, a Peruvian-Chinese restaurant in Brunswick. “These days, people aren’t just looking for a drink and something to eat, they want an experience.”

Central to the TiVo approach are three handsome food and drink trolleys, the brainwave of managing director Vincent Lombino, and hand-crafted from Mount Dandenong blackwood by local artisan My Little Workshop.

“There’s complimentary prosecco and nibbles on arrival, then the martini trolley comes around,” says Kerr-Burrows. Liquid nitrogen is used to chill glasses tableside, and an ice stamp adds bespoke polish to drinks on the rocks. “It opens up a conversation,” he says. “You come in after work with your colleagues or you’re on the way to the theatre with your mum. You want to come again with a group of friends because the experience brings you back.”

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Chef Eric Kwek is excited about loading up his trolley with chilled seafood, including oysters shucked in front of guests, and a prawn cocktail with deep-water Patagonian shellfish and Cognac-spiked sauce. “It’s almost that Prohibition-era idea, pushing a trolley from table to table, everyone dressed in a nice jacket and suit,” he says.

The open, flexible space includes banquette and lounge zones…

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