Flavours of Southbank

It’s always smart to eat where the locals eat, I say.

You won’t be on your Pat Malone when you dine with the common people in the Common Man bar and restaurant at South Wharf, Southbank.

Manager (and actor in between roles) Dave Carroll wants the Common Man to appeal to breakfast, lunch and dinner patrons from all walks of life.

“Local residents and workers keep coming back,” Dave says.

 “We want you to feel like you are at home. Whether you sit down with a latte and use the free wi-fi or are part of a huge group, you still get the same good service. We have many regulars and that is snowballing – regulars attract more people. We like getting ‘slammed’, we just roll with it.”

 The menu reflects this common approach ... $12 curries on Happy Mondays, $9 pizzas on Tight Arse Tuesdays, the $20 parma-and-a-pint on Wednesdays, and so on.

“What we are all about is providing affordable food and drink all day and night,” Dave says.

“Everyone is under the pump with cash these days, so we try to appeal with price and variety.

“We offer a different pie each day, and a different parma of the week.”

Head chef Trev Baker is, of course, a handy baker, and if demand is anything to go by, his best work are the prawn cakes.

Baker, formerly of The World restaurant just up the promenade at Southgate, is tight-lipped about the secret ingredient of said prawn cakes: “Let’s just say it’s love.”

But there’s no secret about what goes into the most popular drink, the Growler: two litres of Thunder Road bitter beer, from Brunswick. And they are just 20 bucks on Saturday nights.

“The Tin Shed All Day Rose (Barossa Valley, SA) fits in with our theme of all-day food and drink,” Dave says.

Busiest times are Friday afternoons, and “lunchtime draws office workers from across the Yarra at ANZ and Myer in Docklands, and Yarra’s Edge. Workers in DFO, ANL and Kraft are loyal lunch customers,” he says.

“And we babysit hubby while the wife or girlfriend is shopping in DFO. We are fortunate to have the South Wharf Hilton nearby, because the hotel will often send guests to us.”

Weekends rock at South Wharf, and Dave sees the precinct only becoming busier.

“We fill up for Saturday and Sunday breakfast and lunch,” he says.

“We opened only in mid December and already we are seeing a lot more foot traffic.”

Dave says the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival in March took the South Wharf cuisine precinct to a new level.

“The Food & Wine Festival was our first big exposure to an external crowd,” he says.

“We have been seeing a lot of new faces coming here following the festival.”

Dave’s first big gig in hospitality was managing the Chelsea Heights Hotel (famous for it’s over 28s club) when he was 20, and has had acting stints on TV series Neighbours and Satisfaction, and is a regular in advertisements.

The Common Man is at 39 Dukes Walk, South Wharf, call 9696 3774 or visit www.thecommonman.com.au

Manager Dave Carroll and a big, cold 2-litre Growler in the Common Man bar and restaurant at South Wharf.