Prince of Wales

December 1997

At age 14 when she started working after school in the van Haandel's Bendigo restaurant, Roseanne Hyland, thought the job was temporary.

Now 15 years later, this tall slim young woman is Operations Manager in charge of the 162 staff working for John and Frank van Haandel at The Stokehouse and Prince of Wales Hotel. By the time the hotel is fully operational, probably by next May, there will be a lot more wage cheques to be signed.

Roseanne has been two years in this position and seems to accept her responsibilities gracefully and happily. After years out front, upstairs and downstairs, at Stokehouse, she now relishes being able to step back a bit from service and to have some weekends and nights off.

She has seen The Stokehouse transformed from the ramshackle function room that was just open upstairs which the brothers took over seven years ago to a hugely successful business operating on two levels. The kitchens, run by executive chef, Michael Lambie, turn out thousands of meals weekly. But The Stokehouse is a small business compared to the potential of the Prince of Wales Hotel on Fitzroy Street which contains three and a half acres in all its levels, carpark and storage area.

The hotel site which once included a supermarket and arcade has slowly and carefully been transformed over the past two years. The old public bars at the front have been kept open with minimal changes, in fact, with painstaking care not to change anything, not to introduce stainless steel fridges, not to make it a yuppie bar and frighten off its regulars. It's well recognised that the St Kilda locals are aggressively against change. They believe that St Kilda belongs to them and will soon make any potential invaders very unwelcome. But the job at the hotel has been made easier because of the careful restoration of The Stokehouse which has greatly endeared the owners to the local community, the council and the Liquor Control Commission.

The first job taken on at The Prince was to develop the Band Room which opened a year ago. It's massive, with a $300,000 sound system and refrigeration capacity for 7000 stubbies at a time. The old front bars on Fitzroy Street and the big band room are in marked contrast and completely segregated from the recently opened ultra chic Mink bar with its freezer cabinet displaying 43 varieties of vodka, chef Matthew Hutchison's smart little Russian flavoured menu, the caviar, the Cuban cigars, the two velvet curtained private cubicles and its very own, very discreet entrance off the main drag on Acland St. But even in the super cool Mink, an important part of St Kilda folk lore has been preserved. A wall painting by local artist Marcus Davidson done years ago in the former pool room has been carefully cleaned and kept as part of the room. Artistic license has been taken with the addition over part of it of some Russian lettering which reads "People's Cafe."

Beside the new/old bar is the Prince Wine Shop opened last week with 22 year old Matt Skinner in charge. Matt is working under the direction of Philip Rich who is the Liquor Operations manager for the Stokehouse and for the Prince of Wales. Philip is one of the senior staff recruited more recently to cope with the growing empire. He joins a team including Kylie Balharrie and Roger Fowler (front of house at The Stokehouse); Glenn Tobias and Justin Pola (kitchens, Stokehouse) Then at Prince of Wales there is Lorri Thompson, hotel manager (its 43 rooms are due to open in April/May), Peter Nga Tydin (formerly of the Duck) and Peter McMahon (formerly The Windsor) who together will manage the front of house in the new restaurant, Circa, next year in which Michael Lambie will run the kitchen . Brendan Brown (husband of Louise who manages the car park) is running Mink and Patrick Walsh continues to manage the two old front bars. Dror Enez runs the Band Room. The bringing together of a skilled and responsible team is all part of the careful process which is so fundamental to the successful running of the two businesses.

And, even more important is getting the behind the scenes areas, the "concealed expenses" absolutely right. There is a huge storage area where the old supermarket used to be on the site with a loading bay, office check and full palette sized goods lift. Chief storeman, Raymond, applies army discipline to policing the area making good use of the big compactor and ensuring that there are no bottles and no rubbish on the street. It's not the most glamorous part of the business, but the importance of a good and clean delivery area cannot be underestimated.

And in another part of the vast storage area is the furniture workshop where carpenter Trent makes up all the bar and hotel's tables and many other pieces of the complex. There's also been chairs and lights re-cycled from the arcade and hotel.

Then of course there are the cafes on Acland and Fitzroy Streets which have been leased out to other operators but which are an important part of the evolution and gradual process of change. Where Chinta Blues and Il Fornaio now serve smart noodles, great breads, cakes and coffees was once the old carpark site and a favoured syringe dump for the area's junkies.

Andrea Mantese runs Il Fornaio and says that the area has changed completely since he opened the bakery/café 10 months ago. "The hard core druggies have gone, now we are so busy. I'm doing meals as well during the day and special Italian breakfasts from 7am." As the bakers start work at 3am, it doesn't leave much time to sleep but 32 year old Andrea seems to thrive on hard work, claiming "it keeps you young."

Also see this 1999 interview (and recipes) with the Van Haandels & Michael Lambie