Having graced Greville Street with St Edmonds, Adam Wilkinson (pictured above) has turned his sights to Cremorne: his second outpost has just opened in a converted up-cycled warehouse on Chestnut Street.
Remember comic book hoodlum-hero Dennis the Menace, and his four-legged sidekick, Gnasher? Adam does: his café aims to marry the mischief of kids with the ambitions of adults. This equates to a fitout that's both fun – there's an interior forest – and sustainable: solar panels, a worm farm (yup) and bio-tank.
Architect Simon Cookes (Duckbuild) says: “Though designed thoughtfully, it was also playful, spurred on by character Dennis the Menace. We pictured a boy building with his grandfather, armed with a twig sling shot and good intentions.”
Crockery is local – sourced from Kilman in Ballarat – and chef Simon Neale (ex-St Edmonds) has devised a menu with a healthy bent: acai, blueberry and coconut water smoothie bowl topped with fresh coconut, watermelon, banana and passion fruit; Japanese-style omelette with spanner crab, shichimi, seaweed salad, mung bean and coriander miso sauce; ocean trout poached in coconut curry with kaffir lime, for example.
Not so menacing after all.