A huge renovation in 2010 restored much of the old girl’s original art deco features, breathing new life into The Post Office Hotel. Caneva describes this demanding time as one of his personal highlights.
“Opening was pretty quite a big achievement,” he says. “We renovated in a month, it was silly thing to try and do but with the help of family and friends, we got it open.”
The aim of the hotel is to be ever-evolving, and family oriented: there are some great pubs around Melbourne, but they’re places you wouldn’t necessarily bring your kids to. The constantly evolving nature of The PO Hotel is something Caneva and his team pride themselves on: the menu is always changing and the wine/beer list is always rotating. This continuous transformation is partly due to the fact that the head chefs have changed rather frequently.
“When you change a head chef; it changes the whole personality of the venue,” he says. “[But] it’s also exciting when these changes happen… It’s more of a family venue than a drinking venue; it’s more about making everyone eat.”
Pair this with the fact that the place is owned by a range of musical people – Tex Perkins and Pat Bourke and Shan Vanderwert from Dallas Crane are all part owners – and you’ve got yourself the ultimate Melbourne hybrid venue. Although, “Tex Perkins has never actually poured a beer here,” says Caneva.
An epic all-day feast is planned for this Sunday so patrons can eat ‘til their heart’s content, relax and listen to some great tunes.
“We’re hiring nine spits to accommodate the nine to 20 animals we’re cooking throughout the day,” Caneva enthuses. All in a day’s work, we guess.
Chefs will be tending the spits in the beer garden from open to close, serving up the best produce from their local butchers, with a range of tasty, seasonal side dishes for various diets and preferences.
The restaurant world is constantly at odds with the seemingly short attention span of diners, so in such a volatile hospitality landscape, how does The PO keep people coming back? Caneva emphasises that it’s important to keep both the team and the patrons interested.
“We do like to mix it up,” says Caneva. “Head chefs Taylor [Mrsich] and Julian [Bell] are heading off to Singapore over Easter to work at [Michelin-star] Bacchanalia… We will then do a dinner at The Post Office Hotel in August with Mark Ebbels, one of the chefs doing dishes from Singapore.”
In terms of music for Sunday, POH DJs will be providing the tunes to the back deck, while local favourites Spoonful, La Bastard and Mick Dog’s Bone Yard will keep the front bar rocking well into the evening. Looking forward, what does Caneva hope the next five, ten, 15 years will be like?
“To continue having fun,” he says. I’m pretty proud we’ve achieved five years, I always thought we’d do it.”
BY SOPH GOULOPOULOS
