Martini Trolleys to Mochi: First Look at Bennetts Lane
The next stage of Melbourne's $200 million, 20-storey Bennetts Lane development has opened at the eastern end of Little Lonsdale Street. A lounge with martini trolleys leads the way, while a yakitori bar and a Taiwanese mochi shop are still to come.
The next stage of Bennetts Lane, a 20-storey, $200 million development at the eastern end of Little Lonsdale Street in Melbourne's CBD, is open now, with martini trolleys and a mochi shop among its drawcards. Not everything is ready yet.
The building rises behind 19th-century heritage brick facades. It houses The Lane House apartment hotel, penthouses, offices, a basement bathhouse and a branch of Cobb Lane Bakery.
TiVo and its trolleys
The headline opening is TiVo, a first-floor aperitivo lounge and event space. It aims to blend a hotel lobby bar, an after-work meeting place and a dressy social club.
"We are offering something different and memorable," said Dave Kerr-Burrows, general manager of Talisman Group, which owns TiVo. "These days, people aren't just looking for a drink and something to eat, they want an experience."
Three food and drink trolleys sit at the centre of it. Managing director Vincent Lombino came up with the idea, and local artisan My Little Workshop built them from Mount Dandenong blackwood.
Guests get complimentary prosecco and nibbles on arrival, then the martini trolley arrives. Staff use liquid nitrogen to chill glasses at the table, and an ice stamp marks drinks served on the rocks.
Chef Eric Kwek loads another trolley with chilled seafood. Oysters are shucked in front of guests, and a prawn cocktail combines deep-water Patagonian shellfish with a Cognac-spiked sauce. "It's almost that Prohibition-era idea, pushing a trolley from table to table," he said.
The 70-seat lounge runs along the laneway side of the building and mixes banquette and lounge zones for solo diners and groups. Chairs are upholstered in velvet stitched with a leaping leopard design by Catherine Martin.
Laneway sites still to open
Four hospitality sites are in various stages of completion in the lane itself, which will become a parklet-lined strip. The area was once home to the Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, where Prince played secret shows.
Korean hospitality group Vibecast holds three of the four sites. Closest to Little Lonsdale Street is a yet-to-be-named Taiwanese mochi shop focused on beautifully wrapped edible gifts, a few months away.
Bakatori, a yakitori bar, opens in the last week of November. A steam-powered lighting feature above the central bar is designed to look like licking flames. Chef Jun Pak, co-founder of the hatted omakase restaurant Aoi Tsuki in South Yarra, is overseeing a menu of charcoal-grilled skewers, udon bowls and nabe.
Next door, a dine-in Japanese- and Korean-inspired bakery will serve shio pan, or salt bread, in 20 flavours.
Cobb Lane Bakery began trading at Bennetts Lane in March, selling sourdough, cookies and a signature sausage roll baked on site. A new Cobb Lane shop is also planned for the Younghusband precinct in Kensington.
TiVo is at 17 Bennetts Lane, Melbourne, and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 4pm until late. Kerr-Burrows said the aim is repeat visits: "You want to come again with a group of friends because the experience brings you back."
