Author: Aaron Meredith

Donovans turns 21! Wow!!

Posted on by Aaron Meredith

Looking back from where we started to where we are today, there is an enormous amount of pride and joy we have experienced with Donovans over 21 years. It all started when we sat on St.Kilda beach, many moons ago,  dreaming of owning the restaurant to create our own ‘house on the beach’. Donovans has always been a place to call home. A place to belong, feel welcome and create special memories. We are absolutely thrilled to be celebrating such a special birthday with you.

For twenty one years we have followed our heart and created the food we love to share. Melbourne is of course Australia’s foodie capital with an ever-increasing understanding and appreciation of good food. With a passion for produce and love of creating food to celebrate, our head chef, Emma D’Alessandro leads the way generating ideas for our future journey.

Of course, we would not be here today without our incredibly loyal customers, fantastic staff and friends of Donovans. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and are thrilled to share with you this wonderful milestone.

We have four months of festivities, featuring birthday party dinners with Gail & Kevin, special price packages for weekday lunches in the Private Dining Room, lots of presents (prizes!), behind the scenes ‘Day in the Life at Donovans’ and a spectacular dinner party ‘Beauty & The Beast’.

And the icing on the cake… everyone who attends our birthday events will automatically be entered into the draw to win our grand prize – A dinner or lunch in our Private Dining Room, for up to 21 people, to the value of $4,500. 

Please see our events page for more information.

Cheers to the next 21 years! And we hope you can join us at Donovans for all the fun!

Lots of Love,

Gail & Kevin Donovan, Wallis & Red xxxx

BBQ time!

Posted on by Aaron Meredith

The long weekend is here and we know there will be lots of gatherings with family, friends and BBQs! We want to share with you an extract from the Donovans Yearbook 2017 and how Kevin cooks the perfect steak!

At Home with Family & Friends
Easy ideas for you at home. Simple, stress free ways to prepare food for loved ones – making sure you get to enjoy time together! A perfectly cooked BBQ t-bone, and everyone bring a salad!

The perfect steak

Firstly, it is important to build a relationship with a good providore. Quality meat comes from good suppliers. It really is worth the time and money. Kevin is a bit of a barbecue purist when it comes to grilling by direct heat, here’s Kevin’s tips for grilling a good steak:

1. Use good quality charcoal, dense and hard.
2. Invest in a chimney to ignite your coals; avoid any sort of artificial igniters as they will surely impart an off flavour to your finished product.
3. Keep your grilling surface clean. Use a wire brush to scrape off any bits from your last session.
4. Remove your product from the fridge a half hour before grilling.
5. Season your product with oil, salt and pepper before grilling.
6. When your chimney has ignited all the coals, carefully pour the coals into the base of your barbecue. Arrange into an even bed in the base of your barbecue. Allow the coals to settle for 5-10 minutes.
7. I am a ‘turn once’ kind of guy. Lay your steak on the grill. From experience, I know that a T-Bone steak approximately 2cm in thickness will take 21/2 to 3 minutes on each side for really good rare-medium rare finish.
8. Here’s the best advice – rest your steak, loosely covered with aluminium foil for the same time you have grilled it for. This will allow the super-heated juices to relax and ensure a truly moist product.
9. Your finished product will be amazing!!!

Don’t forget to indulge in great accompaniments with your steak such as good relishes and quality mustard. Grilling over hot coals doesn’t stop with meat, try a marinated butterflied chicken, or a whole fish with the belly stuffed with fennel and lemon and wrapped in foil.

Happy Grilling!!

 

 

Steak vs Steak

Posted on by Aaron Meredith

We had some very cool guys from Buzzfeed visiting Donovans recently!

Food lovers Steven Lim and Andrew, along with their cameraman Adam, embark on the ultimate food adventure in BuzzFeed’s hit series, Worth It, trying delicious foods at three price points: affordable, middle tier, and luxury. At the end of the episode, the gang decides which item is the most “worth it” at its given price.

With the special ‘Worth It Australia’ edition, the guys chose to check out the Grass fed T-bone from Tasmanian Wilderness Beef Steak at Donovans. Have a look at the video to see how we went!

The video goes for nearly 14 minutes, however you can see the segment where Donovans is featured from 4:24 / 13:43

Three years ago

Posted on by Aaron Meredith

Today we remember the fire at Donovans on the evening of Sunday 24 August 2014.

Following this traumatic event we took the opportunity to embrace change and identify new possibilities at Donovans. Reviewing how we do things at Donovans and why.

What remains constant however is our manifesto: ‘Donovans is a place to call home. A place to belong, feel welcome and create special memories’.

We hope you enjoy this wonderful video produced by Smudge Eats.