Functions are on the menu at Charcoal Lane

Mission Australia's social enterprise restaurant, Charcoal Lane, has recently opened its private dining room catering for groups of up to 20 people, offering a personalised seasonal menu.


The restaurant, located in Melbourne's trendy Fitzroy, now caters for up to 100 guests and has been attracting attention locally and internationally for it's role as a training provider to culinary students of disadvantaged backgrounds and its unique Modern Australian cuisine combining native influences.

The new private dining room will help build Charcoal Lane's reputation as a first-class fine dining venue, ensuring it can provide employment pathways for it's students in the future.

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For bookings or enquiries call: (03) 9418 3400 or visit  www.charcoallane.com.au/contact/booking

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Charcoal Lane making waves around the world

The UK's influential Guardian newspaper recently featured Melbourne's shopping and tourist attractions in its travel section. Among the attractions labelled 'not to be missed' was Mission Australia's own Charcoal Lane restaurant.

Charcoal Lane aims to provide a career path into the hospitality industry for marginalised and unemployed young people, many of who come from an Aboriginal background.

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Further Reading:

•  Read the Guardian's article here:  www.guardian.co.uk/travel...
• Recent review by The Age:  www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment...

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Charcoal Lane wins rave review in The Age

Frequent visitors to Mission Australia's website will know of our terrific new Melbourne initiative, Charcoal Lane.

Developed by Mission Australia with support from the Victorian Government and the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, Charcoal Lane is a 'social enterprise' restaurant that combines a top-flight dining experience with a transitional labour market program designed to assist disadvantaged young people – mainly from Aboriginal backgrounds – develop professional skills for a career in hospitality.

Opened in July 09, Charcoal Lane has already been an outstanding success giving Melburnians and visitors to the city a taste of contemporary Aboriginal food and culture while providing crucial training and mentoring.

Recently The Age's restaurant critic, Nina Rousseau, visited Charcoal Lane and was suitably impressed labelling her experience "bloody good".

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Read the review here and be sure to make a booking at Charcoal Lane the next time you're in Melbourne!

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Charcoal Lane featured in The Age's (Melbourne) Magazine

Charcoal Lane, Mission Australia's social enterprise restaurant in Melbourne's Fitzroy, has featured in The Age's award-winning (Melbourne) Magazine.

Charcoal Lane is a unique new restaurant that embodies the theme of indigenous cooking in a modern setting.  The menu blends international cooking with indigenous ingredients, with items such as salmon wildfire terrine with desert limes and crème fraiche, or kangaroo fillet with rosella flower jus - view the menu here.

While boasting the innovative menu, the restaurant employs up to 32 apprentices and trainees, who are mainly of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island descent.  The social enterprise aims to help disadvantaged young people acheive their life goals through education, training and teamwork.

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Learn more about this unique social enterprise at the new Charcoal Lane website:  www.charcoallane.com.au

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Mission Australia's Charcoal Lane restaurant now taking orders

It’s not often that you associate an up-and-coming restaurant with a community service organisation, but that’s exactly what makes Mission Australia’s Charcoal Lane restaurant so distinctive.

You can sense that Charcoal Lane is special as soon as you walk through its door. Created within a beautiful heritage building in Melbourne’s up-and-coming Fitzroy district, the restaurant features delicately hand painted ceiling panels.

The menu is equally unique – a fusion of modern Australian food and native flavours.

Charcoal Lane was made possible through a partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS). It provides the opportunity for Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people to transform their lives through traineeships and apprenticeships within the restaurant.

The heritage building in which Charcoal Lane is located originally housed VAHS from 1973 until 1992. VAHS is not just a health service. As well as offering access to a wide range of services and programs it has always been a place where people gather, share stories and pass on wisdom.

Many of the people who visited VAHS also frequently congregated at the back of a briquette factory in Fitzroy/Collingwood colloquially known as ‘Charcoal Lane’ – the inspiration for our restaurant’s name.

People came to Charcoal Lane to enjoy each other’s company, to share a drink and a story away from the public eye. One of those people, Archie Roach, recently released a song of the same name in remembrance of the people and times of the Lane.

The new Charcoal Lane has a wonderfully appetising menu, which showcases the restaurant’s native influences.

We hope that Charcoal Lane will continue to be a meeting place for the community in the future and encourage you to experience the food first-hand.

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For bookings or enquiries call: (03) 9418 3400 or visit  www.charcoallane.com.au/contact/booking

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