Meals With Wheels

The Age

Tuesday May 4, 1999

John Lethlean

It was only a matter of time. Sydney has MG Garage in Darlinghurst (where waiters brush past the shiny new MGs for sale), Brisbane has Vroom Cafe in Fortitude Valley (where interesting contemporary and classic cars are the artwork), and now Melbourne classic car entrepreneur Jeff Dutton has plans for a 100-seater restaurant at his Church Street, Richmond, warehouse-showroom. Mind you, Dutton started the whole food-plus-flash-car equation. For several years Dutton's has housed Cafe Veloce, a simple Italian snackery where you can take panini and espresso, while at the same time considering a second-hand Maserati. The cafe was initially developed in partnership with the Caffe e Cucina Group, although they got out long ago. Now much grander ideas are hatching. Plans are with the City of Yarra for a 100-seater called simply, Dutton's, with an Italian bias. The Duttons have entered a business relationship with a mystery chef. "We have a very good chef involved," says Gay Dutton, "but we're not at liberty to disclose who it is just yet." They hope to open by year's end.

After a time-consuming period of review, one of Melbourne's most important small restaurants, Guernica, has finally settled on the appointment of David Danks as head chef. Over the past five years, Guernica has followed a steady trajectory to the top of Melbourne's restaurant list with Teage Ezard as chef. Deciding on his replacement was one of the most difficult decisions proprietors Jo Beshara and Russell Bryant have had to make since 1994, when they created their Brunswick Street restaurant from the basics of a down-market cafe. Danks, 27, may have been an obvious choice: he was Ezard's sous-chef for two years before leaving to run The Canteen at the now-defunct Georges. Since the demise of that bold retail/restaurant experiment, Perth-born Danks has been back at Guernica temping. But it wasn't quite as straightforward as that.

"We had some amazingly talented chefs apply for the job," says Beshara. "Ultimately it was David's combination of talent, leadership and freshness of ideas that impressed us the most." Danks, like so many leading chefs in Melbourne, did a spell at Quaglino's in London, where he met many of the ex-Georges staff. He introduces his first menu this week.

Martin Webb, the former head of Georges food and restaurant operations, is believed to be talking to a Melbourne photographer about a second book. Currently overseas, the chef's first book, Fusion, was produced in Britain and published in 1987.

Former Stokehouse sous-chef David MacLaren-Brugera has popped up at

St Kilda's Atlantic restaurant as executive chef. The Briton will help to steer both the high-end dining of the evening menu and the newly opened Atlantic South Wharf function centre, challenging Blakes Event Warehouse down by the Yarra as the place to get hitched - etc.