Dur-é Dara

April 1997

Update:

Dur-é Dara and Stephanie Alexander disolved their partnership shortly before Stephanies closed at the end of 1997. She now (2001) owns EQ at Southbank

Dur-é loves the diversity of these businesses, the buildings’ different styles, custom and, of course, the food. For her the Nudel Bar is a Malayasian tuck shop, a “canteen” - it recalls childhood memories of the school snacks, tuck shops there being “like a legalised Hawkers Market with all different foods and staff from different schools, used to go to different tuckshops to eat their food if it was better. And the staff from my school often went to the school next door, my mother’s school where she was the headmistress.”

What the Bourke Street Nudel Bar provides for Melbourne is an extraordinary range of noodles from Eastern European spaetzli to mee goreng to Italian pastas to fish balls to macaroni cheese. It means that people can go and eat European and Asian in the one cafe and it’s been a phenomenal success. Started in March of last year, it is now constantly full, “an amazing formula”. The menu design and food concept are Dur-é’s, and, although the five way partnership is based on equal contributions, Dur-é insists that no changes can take place in the food without her approval. The food is very much hers although the running of the front of house is Helen’s. It is almost the reversal of her role at Stephanie’s and that suits Dur-é. She wants no conflict in her committments.

In deciding to buy the former Jean Jacques, now the Pavilion, Dur-é first of all recruited Gail and Kevin Donovan whom she describes as very talented and “amazingly hard workers . . . who inspire their staff”. Now she goes to board meetings and has input but does not interfere in the daily running of the restaurant.

Dur-é says that she gets great pleasure from these three involements but it is well known that she and Stephanie are trying to sell the Tooronga restaurant. Stephanie has already taken on another business, her Richmond Hill Cafe and Cheese Shop opened last week. The service of the cafe will be run by Lisa Montague, daughter of Stephanie (and Monty, Stephanie’s first husband) and managed by Angela Clements, a friend and working colleague of Stephanie for many many years.

For Dur-é the sale of Stephanie’s would allow more time for music and for her many community involvements. She is Convenor of the Victorian Womens Trust; President of the Restaurant and Caterers Association and a Board member of Koorie Women Mean Business, the Victorian Wineries Tourism Council, the Liquor Industry Consultative Council and a member of the womens reference group - Equal Opportunity Commission - Victoria. At a dinner recently Dur-é was seen proudly wearing the Order of Australia she was awarded for her services in these areas, but in Dur-é particularly individual style, she wore the small gold stud in her nose!

A woman of style, of strong beliefs and with tremendous loyalties to her partners. Dur-é wants the vision of Stephanie’s to continue, she sees the future of the beautiful Victorian mansion in Hawthorn as a showcase for the hospitality industry, “ with its amazing facilities, it could be a post-graduate training centre with a teaching facility upstairs”.