MELBOURNE: Located at basement level in Flinders Street's historic Rendezvous Hotel Melbourne, Mr Tompkins is a welcome addition the city's underground dining scene, with a menu that pays homage to the building's Edwardian Baroque-style architecture and its Australian roots, courtesy of Head Chef, Eric Kwek. 

Named after architect Harry Tompkins, who designed the building back in 1913, the 60-seat restaurant is a dapper affair, offering intimate candlelit dining, one level below Melbourne's bustling Flinders Street. Restaurant guests enter via a grand staircase on the lobby level of the Rendezvous Hotel and descend down to a moody space complete with velvet drapes, a jazzy soundtrack, and a menu of classic European dishes, with an Australian native twist. 

“Given the references of European and Australian design throughout the building - especially in the Grand Vestibule where you'll find complex gum leaf designs within the plasterwork - our menu, and the overall ambiance, has been carefully curated to complement the space,” Chef Kwek said.  
 
Chef - who is best known for stints at Coda on Flinders Lane, alongside Adam D'Sylva, and Turbine at Goulburn Valley's Trawool Estate – says to think of his approach as a twist on the classics. 

"At Mr Tompkins, we've introduced Australian native ingredients and techniques to classic European dishes thus creating an instant connection between the food and the space it calls home,” the Singapore-born chef said. “This menu also allows me to blend my passions – my classically-trained French cookery and love for foraging bush foods and using great local suppliers.”

Of course, a menu like this needs the perfect venue and Chef thinks he's found that in Mr Tompkins. Starters include a classic tomato salad featuring heirloom tomatoes, sourced from Wandin Yallock farms in Yarra Valley, that are enhanced to perfection with perennial native basil; whilst Chef's Shark Bay half shell scallops with cauliflower puree are paired with a seaweed butter sauce that's made with local wakame (broad leave seaweed) and sea grapes caviar of salmon roe from Victoria. 

Mains are priced from $32 and include Grilled Victorian pork cheeks that are basted in quandong glaze; as well as stinging nettle risotto with chargrilled broccolini, whipped goats curd and roasted spiced almonds.  

Chef's Roasted Murray Cod is a real highlight. Served on a bed of burning paperbark - to add a distinctly smokey flavour – it is paired with Australian natives like sorrel, macadamia nuts and crab apples. As Chef explains, paperbark is traditionally used by our First Nations cultures as bedding and to wrap proteins in before tossing them into the fire. 

And for drinks, guests can choose from an impressive line-up of Australian spirits like Starward and The Gospel, curated cocktails and locally sourced wines from Montalto Estate, Mornington Peninsula and Oakridge Estate, Yarra Valley. 

Mr Tompkins is open Wednesday to Saturday from 6pm. 

Ms Ava joins Mr Tompkins 

From early September, Rendezvous Melbourne's Travellers Bar transforms into a new inner city watering hole, aptly called Miss Ava. In another nod to the building's history, Ms Ava is named after 1920s actress, Ava Gardner, who stayed and played at the hotel while filming “On The Beach” in 1959.  
 
Embodying her grace, beauty and charm, Ms Ava will serve an elevated bistro-style menu, play tunes from Gardner's late husband, Frank Sinatra, and serve signature cocktails that pay tribute to the actress and her time at the hotel. Think 'The Ms Ava Bramble 27' made with Four Pillars Dry Gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, crème de mur or inspired by the movie 'On The Beach' is given a holiday twist made of coconut rum, pineapple juice, lime, and a hint of vanilla.  
 
Ms Ava is open from early September, from Sunday – Thursday 3pm until late | Friday – Saturday 12 until late.  

Ends. 

MR TOMPKINS FAST FACTS: 

Address: 318 Flinders Street Melbourne. Underground of Rendezvous Hotel Melbourne  

Open: Wednesday — Saturday from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. 

Website: rendezvousmelbourne.com.au/mr-tompkins/ 

Book here: www.opentable.com.au/r/mr-tompkins-melbourne 

Instagram: @mrtompkinsmelbourne 
High-res images: available here  

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jessica Wood (TFE Hotels PR Executive)| jwood@tfehotels.com | +61 437 242 034 
Jodi Clark (TFE Hotels Director of Communications) | jclark@tfehotels.com |+61 499 900 658 

About Harry Tompkins 

Harry Tompkins was one of Melbourne's best commercial architects during the first three decades of the 20th Century. He had a long relationship with the Commercial Travellers Association and also with Sidney Myer, for whom he designed the first Myer Emporium building in Melbourne. Harry Tompkins served two terms as President of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects between 1914 and 1916, a reflection of his esteemed position in the architectural profession.  A charismatic man with influence, natural dignity, and persuasive charm. Harry Tompkins had creative energy and an infectious enthusiasm. His lively sense of humour was offset by an underlying wistfulness. He was tall and elegant, with dark crinkly hair and a neat moustache. He was inordinately ambitious and a man with vision and warm human sympathies. 

More about Mr Tompkins 

A meaningful new restaurant with an old soul. It's about classic service that's out of the ordinary and an experience quite extraordinary. Mr Tompkins doesn't stand still. It evolves with people, ideas, and time. Guests come back, not because they know what they'll get, but because they know Mr Tompkins won't be resting on his laurels. 

EDITOR'S NOTES:  

• Constructed in 1913, the original building started life as The Commercial Travellers Association Building and was designed by architect Harry Tompkins. He soon became one of Melbourne's leading commercial architects at the time for introducing Edwardian Baroque influence from his British travels. 
• Of the more than £58,000 spent on its construction, much was allocated to ensuring a lavish interior. The towering entrance hall vestibule was a magnificent feature that included the mezzanine floor above and was distinctive for its complex gum leaf designs, known as coprosma decoration, within the prevailing plasterwork. The walls were lined with oak panelling, the only non-Australian wood used in the building and the tessellated mosaic floor covered with fine Turkish carpet of exceptional size. Brown leather chairs were located within the vestibule, along with a settee designed by Harry Tompkins. 
• To this day, it is one of the finest and most distinct expressions of the Edwardian Baroque style in Melbourne and the Grand Vestibule has seen many a beaming bride twirling beneath it.  
• High profile people met at the CTA including Edward Prince of Wales in May 1920 (when the façade was festooned with banners and lights in his honour) and the Duke of Gloucester in October 1934. 
• The building ceased functioning as the Commercial Travellers Association club in 1976 and fell into disrepair before being partially restored as the Duxton Hotel in the late 1990s. When commercial viability saw the Duxton close its doors, the Rendezvous Hospitality Group took on the project of meticulously restoring the hotel, retaining the elegant style of the early 1900s while providing guests with all the convenience of the 21st Century; what today is known as the Rendezvous Melbourne.