One of Melbourne’s most iconic restaurants changes hands after 26 years

Legendary St Kilda restaurant Donovans is changing owners for the first time since it opened in 1997. On August 31, founders Gail and Kevin Donovan will hand over the beachfront business to their “adopted son” Nick Parkhouse, the restaurant’s general manager.

“This is our home,” says Gail. “If we weren’t able to orchestrate Nick to take over from us, I would be bereft. As it is, I’m so happy for him. He’s been looking for this opportunity, and we’re leaving the restaurant in the safest of hands.”

First things first. Melbourne need not worry. The new owner has no plans to prise the seafood linguine, old-fashioned chicken pot pie or bombe Alaska from the menu of beloved classics.

“Everything stays the same,” says Parkhouse, a highly credentialed sommelier who has worked for the Grossi family and Colonial Leisure Group in senior roles. “What Gail and Kevin have created is one of the most iconic restaurants, not only in Melbourne, but Australia. It’s so revered and loved and there’s not a damn thing that’s going to change. It’s my honour to carry the mantle.”

A sad necessity has prompted the change. “Kev’s been unwell for five years and not able to work in the restaurant for at least three years,” says Gail, 70, of her 68-year-old “toy boy”. His condition is undiagnosed but has included aneurysms, Parkinson-like symptoms and reduced lung function.

“It’s time that I stayed home, not to look after Kev, because I don’t intend to do that, but because we want time to have some more fun,” she says.

Parkhouse has been working at the restaurant for seven years. “He rocked up for Christmas as a fill-in,” says Gail. “Kev said to me, ‘That guy Nick, he’s walked in like he’s meant to be here.’ After a month, Kev said, ‘My God, when Nick walks around that room, it’s like looking at myself.’ Over the years he’s been here, he’s become part of the family. He’s the child we never had. We’ve adopted Nick and he’s adopted us. We’re his parents, whether he likes it or not.”

“There’s not a damn thing that’s going to change. It’s my honour to carry the mantle.”

Nick Parkhouse

Parkhouse’s history at Donovans is longer than his employment record at the establishment. “This restaurant has been close to my heart well before I properly knew Kevin and Gail,” he says. “My wife, Pip, introduced me to the place when we were 20 or 21 and we could only afford to share an entree and a dessert. We started coming for all our special occasions.”

He eventually proposed to Pip at Donovans, with Port Phillip Bay twinkling beyond the windows. “It seemed the only place to get down on bended knee and ask her the question,” he says.

His silent partner in ownership is Andrew Renfrey, a venture capitalist and longtime friend of the restaurant. “I’m very humbled that Gail and Kevin saw something in Nick and I,” he says. “It’s a privilege to carry on the Donovans’ legacy.”

The Donovans have history with this site that predates their restaurant. “I used to come here when I was a kid living in Carnegie and this was a bathing pavilion,” says Gail of the building, which dates to 1928. In the late 1980s, the premises was home to seafood restaurant Jean Jacques By The Sea.

Previous SlideNext Slide

“It was a magical place,” says Gail, who cemented her relationship with Kevin on the deck over oysters and a bottle of sancerre. They had met when American-born Kevin assessed Gail for a job at the Hyatt.

“When Kev interviewed me it took him two hours and he wrote on the page, ‘A veritable ball of fire’. I went home and said to my housemate, ‘I’m going to marry that guy.’ I thought he was wonderful.”

The couple ended up buying the restaurant and naming it The Pavilion before reshaping it as Donovans in 1997 alongside silent partners Richard B. Fisher and Jeanne Donovan Fisher (no relation), an American couple of considerable means.

The Age first reviewed Donovans shortly after opening. Writer Raymond Gill remarked on the “casual … vibrancy”, “the convivial environment” and “beachy informality”.

The restaurant has been awarded at least one Good Food Guide hat every year since opening; the current guide celebrates the restaurant’s “timeless dishes” and “classic made contemporary” style. Dishes that were here on day one – the whole roast duck, prawns grilled with oregano and chilli, beer-battered fish and chips – are still fixtures.

Donovans is leased from the City of Port Phillip, with 16 years remaining on the current agreement. Parkhouse is looking forward to settling in. “It’s a contract of sale but I can’t overemphasise the warmth of the handover,” he says. “It’s surreal and wonderful at the same time. They could have chosen to sell to anyone and they chose me. I feel very privileged.”

Gail says “not everything needs to change in this world”.

“Donovans is a place of heart and soul and welcome and with Nick as steward it will continue to be. Whether you’re 99 or 19, who doesn’t love feeling at home?”