Merivale pulls out of Melbourne home meal service after restaurant backlash

Sydney restaurant group Merivale, was set to launch its new take away meal service in Melbourne in the coming weeks, however severe backlash from Melbourne restaurant owners has forced the group to put the idea on hold.

Merivale, whose venues include restaurants such as Mr Wong, Ms G’s, Fred’s and Totti’s amongst many more, were about to start their Merivale at Home service in Melbourne this August.

Due to the recent surge in Covid numbers in Victoria, the company announced they will temporarily postpone entering the Melbourne market. 

Frank Roberts, Merivale’s food and beverage general manager said, “We didn't anticipate the unintended consequences of expanding into Melbourne at this time, and as soon as we heard from some of the local operators, we hit pause. 

“In solidarity, we have decided to hold off entering the Melbourne market until venues are back open and trading.”

According to Roberts, Merivale has been developing the at home service for about a year.

Feeling the pressure from Melbourne’s hospitality industry,  Merivale used Instagram to publicly announce their decision to put it on hold.

In an interview with Broadsheet, Matt Linklater, general manager of Black Pearl said, “Merivale choosing this time for its first foray into Australia’s hospitality capital is at best tone-deaf, and at worst opportunistic.  Now, more than ever, is the time to support local, otherwise all the rich tapestry of Melbourne hospitality will be well and truly lost.” 

Ashleigh Dyer, co-owner of newly opened Hemingway’s Wine Room, was also disappointed by Merivale’s plans feeling they were predatory. At a time when Sydney restaurants are permitted to be open and accept seated customers, she felt it unfair especially as enticing Melbourne customers to purchase take away from local restaurants is proving difficult.

Hemingway’s opened its doors in the period between Melbourne’s first and second lockdowns. Within two weeks of opening, dine-in was yet again prohibited and the team was forced to provide its own take away service.

The idea behind Merivale’s at Home service is to deliver refrigerated meal boxes to Melbourne. These boxes would be prepared in Sydney and the customers would finish them at home.

In the original press release Merivale CEO Justin Hemmes said, “We’ve always had amazing guests from Victoria at our venues, so our expansion into Melbourne was a natural progression.”

“Our southern friends are doing it really tough right now – we hope that we can help with the comfort and joy of great meals from our best chefs.

Dyer agrees that postponing Merivale at Home for Melbourne is a good move.

“It’s actually quite respectful that they did pull the plug for the moment, because I can tell you right now, they would not have had a pleasant time with operators down here,” she says.