Foundry adds a new menu under Chef Adam Woodfield
Foundry has appointed chef Adam Woodfield, with the West Melbourne restaurant moving into a more food-led direction under a new menu shaped by Victorian produce and his experience in Melbourne and New York.
The 130-seat restaurant sits on level six of the newly opened Mercure Melbourne La Trobe Street, with an adjoining terrace bar overlooking Flagstaff Gardens. The venue also takes in views across the western edge of Melbourne’s skyline, including Marvel Stadium and the Bolte Bridge.
Woodfield’s background includes Melbourne’s Chin Chin, Hamilton Island’s CoCa Chu, Michelin-starred New York restaurant PUBLIC, and Betel, his own venue in New York.
“It’s a beautiful space, and it already had a really relaxed energy to it,” Woodfield says. “For me, it was a chance to build something genuinely food-driven and somewhere locals would want to return to.”
The new menu moves between bar snacks, comfort-led dishes and touches of Southeast Asian influence. Dishes include smoked cheese croquettes with hot honey, sticky lemongrass pork ribs, barramundi with fennel and salsa verde, and MB4+ Riverina porterhouse with peppercorn sauce and Spud Sisters hand-cut fries.
Woodfield says the porterhouse is the dish that best reflects his approach.
“The porterhouse is probably the standout dish for me,” Woodfield says. “It nods to the style of cooking I worked around early in my career. Simple food done properly with really good produce.”
The Terrace bar looks across Flagstaff Gardens
The venue opens from the lift into a six-metre red marble bar, with a tall back bar displaying individually underlit spirits and liqueurs. Interiors by SORA reference the building’s former life as a tinsmith factory, with mirrored ceilings, copper shakers and brass lighting.
The terrace is a key part of the venue’s draw, shifting from after-work drinks into dinner service as the light changes across the western CBD.
“We get the first and last light on the terrace, and you can see all the way down to Marvel Stadium and the Bolte Bridge,” says venue manager Summer Norton. “At golden hour, it completely transforms the space.”
The drinks list has a strong Victorian focus, with 90 per cent of the wines sourced from local producers. Local tap beers also feature, alongside cocktails using techniques such as milk punch, infusion and dehydration.
Cocktails include Night Owl, made with wattleseed-infused Bulleit Bourbon, Mr Black Coffee and caramel miso; Lovely Daze, a clarified mango wheisbar; and Ice Ice Baby, made with vanilla vodka, raspberry syrup, Averna and coconut foam.
The list also includes low and no-alcohol options. These include Soda Pop, a housemade pineapple dirty soda with agave nectar, and Arvo Spritz, a non-alcoholic aperitif from Heidelberg.
Foundry Bar and Kitchen is open daily, with the bar operating from 5pm and the restaurant serving dinner from 5:30pm.
