CO-FOUNDER OF 18 RESTAURANTS
RESTAURANT CONSULTANT
AUTHOR TO BE:
PLANT-BASED COOKBOOK OCTOBER 2024
CO-FOUNDER OF 18 RESTAURANTS
RESTAURANT CONSULTANT
AUTHOR TO BE:
PLANT-BASED COOKBOOK OCTOBER 2024
Get Ready To Make A Huge Missed Steak
DaysDays
HrsHours
MinsMinutes
SecsSeconds
Mark Filippelli is a law graduate who fell in love with all things hospitality. His hospitality group, which he co-owns with his brother Attil, has been wholly committed to bringing wholesome and nutrient-dense food to the communities of Melbourne, Sydney – and more recently, Byron Bay – since 2010. As part of an active and purposeful movement away from dairy and meat-heavy diets, the group has forged a restaurant revolution in Melbourne, focusing on transforming many traditionally dairy and meat-heavy breakfast and dinner staples to their ethical, plant-based alternatives.
Mark has co-owned and operated 18 hospitality venues since the age of 25 (including multi-award winning and Instafamous plant-based restaurant Matcha Mylkbar – where the world’s first trademarked completely vegan egg was invented! Matcha Mylkbar generated huge coverage worldwide, most notably a mention from Chris Hemsworth in the New York Times and named the People’s Choice Best Café in 2016. Some of Mark’s other restaurants have included St Kilda’s Iconic Il Fornaio (since sold), which was named TimeOut Melbourne’s best Café Bakery and described in GQ as “Melbourne’s sexiest bakery”, and which also supplied some of Melbourne’s best restaurants. The longest standing of the venues is The Last Piece, which has been, and continues to be, a must-eat restaurant.
Things soon got even weirder, with Weirdoughs Bakery, opening in Melbourne’s CBD, in November 2018. The inspiration for the project sprouted from an unrequited desire to source quality vegan desserts in Melbourne’s CBD. The resulting venue was a bold, technicoloured day/night operation that has more in common with a laneway bar than a traditional patisserie, serving beats and sweets all through the day and until the wee hours on Friday and Saturday nights. Weirdoughs was named the People’s Choice Best Café of 2018 by Concrete Playground.
Mark + Vinny’s was Mark’s first Sydney venture together with dear friend and highly acclaimed musician Vince Pizzinga. “We wanted to make a move to this exciting market to spread our underlying message – that a less meat- heavy diet is crucial for the sustainability of our planet’s resources and the longevity of our health,” Mark explains. “Where meat is used in our venues, it is strictly local, sustainable and ethically raised.” Mark + Vinny’s’ food offerings comprise an innovative, sustainable – and of course, Instagrammable – menu. Mark + Vinny’s introduced boundary-pushing culinary creations, including dessert pastas, blue spirulina tagliatelle, plant-based nut milk burratas and spaghetti carbonara with the Matcha Mylkbar created vegan egg! Despite a horrifyingly difficult 2020 for the restaurant industry, Mark + Vinny’s opened a second outpost in Byron Bay in February 2021. The new restaurant continues to showcase what a more sustainable food system looks like, by offering a predominantly plant-based menu and highlighting the real MVP’s, “The Most Valuable Producers”, of the region.
The pursuit of spreading the good food message has made it as far as Templestowe in Melbourne’s outer Eastern Suburbs, with Miss Kneady opening in June 2019, and more recently the group’s newest venture, Catalina Kitchen, opening in Knox in January 2022. A recent review from The Age Newspaper, July 6, 2019, perfectly described the intended experien] : at Miss Kneady, “we arrived, we ordered, the table filled with a brunchy gaggle of colourful dishes. And then I noticed something - without even trying to, we’d kept meat to a minimum. More and more, Melbourne eateries are making it possible to be an accidental vegetarian, even if only for one meal. It’s simply because the non-meat dishes are so good. It all starts to make sense when you know that Attil and Mark Filippelli are among the owners of Miss Kneady. These same brothers started game-changing vegan cafe Matcha Mylkbar (famous for vegan "eggs") and plant-based city patisserie Weirdoughs (famous for its no-lobster lobster roll). They also own The Last Piece, the family-friendly Waverley Park restaurant that – over eight trust-building years – lured many locals away from boring big breakfasts to acai bowls and quinoa cakes.” The "kneady" in Miss Kneady has a couple of meanings. It’s a reference to dietary needs, a challenge for every restaurateur, and one that Miss Kneady has addressed front on. As well as vegan and vegetarian options, there are generous offerings for those going gluten-free. As recently as August 2019, a review on Australia’s 3AW described Miss Kneady as, “my favourite suburban meal this year” and went further to say – “the best doughnuts I’ve tasted.”
Mark has gone on to use his skill set to act as consultant for restaurants opening in the future, and also for those currently in operation looking to add some creative and vegan options to their menus. As a social entrepreneur, Mark is committed to the organisation YGAP (Y-Generation Against) and was co-founder of the organisation’s award-winning Feast of Merit, a social enterprise restaurant in Richmond. Filippelli remains an ambassador for the organisation’s Polished Man campaign, which supports youth education and leadership projects in Malawi, Ghana, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Australia.
FOR CONSULTING ADVICE CLICK ON THE CONSULTING TAB IN THE HEADER :)
Mark Filippelli
Sold Out.
Sold Out.
Sold out.
Copyright © 2024 THIS WEBSITE IS A HUGE MISSED STEAK - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.