Seasoned restaurateurs Ross and Sunny Lusted have entered the Melbourne dining and bar scene, opening Portuguese restaurant Marmelo and basement cocktail bar Mr Mills at Melbourne Place on Russell Street in the CBD.
From running hotels abroad to living in Melbourne, Ross Lusted is leaning into his years of experience traveling the world when it comes to informing the venues he runs here.
Ross spoke to The Write Drop for our At The Bar series.
MY CITY
I live in the city, and having lived in many countries, Melbourne for me has the best of Europe and Asia. I love being able to walk through Chinatown and drop into Supper Inn for crispy chicken at 1am, and then wake up and have a coffee at Dukes on Flinders Lane.
FAVOURITE FOOD MEMORY
There is a small restaurant called Orsan just a few kilometres along the coastal road north of Dubrovnik, if you blink you could miss it. At night you can watch the small “Leuti”, a local fishing boat with a large lamp at the bow, move slowly in the bay, fishermen armed with a pronged spear fishing for octopus. During the day you can also have a refreshing swim between courses, but it is the magic that is created when a restaurant produces dishes so specific to their region that is memorable. Cooked over olive cuttings, with salt from Ston, just a few miles north. The fish drizzled with olive oil from the monastery that has had a few mandarins thrown between the ancient stone wheel that grinds the olives adding a beautiful citrus note to the oil. Of all the 2- and 3-star restaurants I have been lucky enough to visit, it is food like this that stays with you forever.
FAVOURITE BAR
Caretakers Cottage, I like how intimate it is, it’s open late and I usually know at least one person there that I have been meaning to catch up with. The music is always perfect.
DRINK THAT DESCRIBES YOU
I love a classic cocktail, things that have always been there but go out of fashion, maybe an Amarone and to finish some old bourbon.
BEST HANGOVER CURE
Congee, salted duck eggs, youtiao, Chinese fried bread sticks and black tea.
BEST INTERSTATE BAR
Icebergs bar, so Italian, so Sydney.
OVERSEAS BAR
Bars in NYC are like no other bars in the world. I travelled a lot to NYC for work and coming from Europe I would hit the city at around 9pm. My first stop would be the bar at Balthazar. It doesn’t matter what time your reservation is, you are always directed to the bar for a minimum of two cocktails. I have had many dinners there where I never left the bar. The martini is my drink of choice and here they are stirred, extremely cold and the olives are exceptional.
FAVOURITE WINE
Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella – a wonderful food wine. It is usually in Italy with family and friends when wine always tastes so much better.
FAVOURITE WINERY
Marchesi di Barolo, a visit in September when truffle season is in full swing is a favourite time. The local monastery opens its doors and cooks egg pasta with truffle and a fried egg, there is no better wine for this dish.
NEXT DESTINATION
Sicily, it has been on the bucket list for some time. The region produces some interesting wines so a journey of discovery, getting out of the comfort zone.
Tell us about the decision to join Melbourne Place as a dining and drink destination.
I was born in South Africa and have lived in seven countries. We have Portuguese influence in South Africa and the more I travelled I could see the footprint of the Portuguese all over the world. I really wanted to bring this experience to Melbourne, a market-driven city where diners appreciate the Ross Lusted – Marmelo and Mr Mills journey it has taken to get there. The wine, fortified wines and liquors play an important part in the dining and life of the Portuguese, and I think this is very much aligned with Melburnians.
TAKE US THROUGH THE DRINK LIST
The cocktail menu at Mr. Mills takes a very modern approach, so much so that we call the menu – ‘Modern Cocktails’. A lot of it is guided by seasonality, and we work to the tune of timeless classics, but often introducing new layers or elements that either accompany the traditional themes or subvert expectations entirely. Two drinks that do this well are our Tomato & Cacao Negroni and our Banana & Rice Sour.
WHAT SHOULD A COCKTAIL BAR ALWAYS BE
A bar should be welcoming and feel like an old friend. I wanted a bar that feels like that place. A bar can be many things for many different occasions, and I love the different spaces we have been able to create in Mr Mills and Marmelo.
HOW MANY WINES MAKE THE LIST AT MARMELO
The wine list at Marmelo is constantly evolving. It has been very exciting to see suppliers and wine makers finding a new home for some of their wines that have not traditionally been available on restaurant wine lists. We have made it our mission to champion Portuguese wines, and to introduce our guests to a path less travelled. Fortified wines are a centrepiece of Portugal’s wine-making history and trade, and we are impassioned to showcase the multitude of Port styles from the Douro Valley as well as the extremely long-lived wines from the legendary island of Madeira. Nowadays, Portuguese wines can confidently stand up against the finest wines of the world, with a focus on regionality, diversity of varieties and sustainability. Marmelo’s selection aims to make Iberian wines the protagonists of this list, celebrating both classic and more experimental, up-and-coming wine makers. This naturally flows into sections dedicated to Australian-grown Iberian varieties. With over 475 wines on the list our journey has only just begun.
