Mrs Singh
Year
2020
Client
Jessie Singh
Service
Culinary Direction · Launch
A modern Indian wine bar that earned a four-star Good Food review. Cross-cultural by practice, not by trend. Years before the wider Melbourne scene caught up.
© Mrs Singh
Context
Mrs Singh was a modern Indian wine bar on Flinders Lane, built around playful cross-cultural cooking, accessible wine direction, and the kind of energy that earns repeat visits.
The brief: prove Indian food could live inside a Melbourne wine-bar format without losing identity. Punjab via Paris. New York meets New Delhi. Mumbai dances with Melbourne.
What I built
Scope
Concept input · Equipment sourcing · Supplier setup · Team recruitment · Culinary direction · Menu architecture · Dish development · Recipe books · SOPs · Training protocols · Documentation · Health & safety · Launch · Ongoing management
A menu structured around dish-and-wine logic: small plates that worked with texture, fat and acid; large plates that anchored a bottle. Indian flavour as the foundation, technique as the lens.
The butter chicken crème brûlée: chicken liver pâté built with tomato, ginger, garlic and fenugreek, finished with a shatter-crisp sugar shell, served with garlic truffle naan. It became one of the dishes the Good Food review built its argument around.
Signature moment
The four-star Good Food review by Dani Valent. “Mrs Singh has sashayed in and made herself instantly essential.” Herald Sun followed with 14.5/20 and “the cure for every too-cool inner-city wine bar.”
Outcome
Mrs Singh proved the cross-cultural lane existed in the work years before it became a Melbourne trend. It remains one of the strongest standalone receipts in the file.
Press
“It's playful and unique. New York meets New Delhi. Punjab does Paris. Mumbai dances with Melbourne.” Dani Valent, The Age / Good Food, Mar 2020 (4★)
“Mrs Singh is the cure for every too-cool inner-city wine bar. It's restorative, relaxed and a whole lot of fun.” Dan Stock, Herald Sun, Feb 2020 (14.5/20)
Collaborate.
Polepole / Glamp