Project Team

Design: Hecker Guthrie

Fresh, light hearted and playful – the Millswyn is a neo-French brasserie Melbourne can call its own.

With profound emphasis on seasonal produce, the restaurant will offer an array of traditional dishes, historically revisited and playfully reinvigorated. The Millswyn believes as much in the dining
environment as in the quality of the food itself. Bright and elegant, sleek yet sophisticated, the décor draws heavily on the Nordic propensity towards minimalism and neighbourhood intimacy. Set
directly across from Melbourne’s lush Royal Botanical Gardens, The Millswyn delivers a chic and natural dining experience.

The Millswyn, whose name is derived from its eponymous cross street, is housed on the premises formerly occupied by famed South Yarra institution Lynch’s. The project marks the first collaboration
between entrepreneur and restaurateur Davis Yu and award-winning Melbourne-based design studio Hecker Guthrie. Davis’ vision is of a Nordic-inspired French brasserie – tasteful and yet understated –
serving traditional, unfussy French fare of the highest quality.

Diners are drawn initially to the establishment’s prominent neighbourhood location, set as it is directly across from the leafy boughs of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Enter through the
stately front door of this Victorian terrace house and witness the impressive marriage of elegant

Scandinavian chic with an old-world opulence. The Millswyn accommodates up to 110 guests in total and comprises two levels of dining including a private dining space with separate entrance for those
after an extra serving of exclusivity with their meal.

Davis wanted the interior of The Millswyn to strike an elusive harmony between old-world timelessness and fresh modernity.

In developing his concept, he researched voraciously, bounding from the sleek, ultra-modern restaurants of Copenhagen and Chicago to the charmingly cluttered eateries of New York and Paris. His travels brought about the realisation that dining is a timeless social fixture for which an appreciation of the past is vital to any step toward the future.

“I wanted the design of The Millswyn to be understated yet sophisticated, detailed yet simple. The interior needed to convey the sleek, minimalist lines of Stockholm and at the same time deliver a
functional aesthetic,” he says. “From the very outset, Hecker Guthrie had to understand our desire to retain elements of the past and invigorate the space with light-hearted playfulness.”

Paul Hecker and his team pared back the restaurant’s old interior and utilised layering of colours, shapes and eras to create an intimate space.

Hecker, Director of Melbourne-based Hecker Guthrie says: “We understand that Lynch’s was an institution and we were conscious not to take this away from the locals. Instead we have designed a new neighbourly destination where one can choose from various types of spaces from open to intimate, depending on one’s mood. Few locations in Melbourne offer such a leafy, almost European outlook and that was a huge part of our inspiration when rethinking the approach to The Millswyn. In short, we have created a fresh, comfortable and robust space where domestic references are rife and
no doubt, an institute is in the making.”

Walking through the transformed space, it becomes apparent that Hecker Guthrie delivered on their brief in the most creative sense. Old-fashioned plaited mops hang along the white tiled walls; Italian porcelain lights adorn the restaurant space and chrome and
galvanised pendants dangle above the front bar. This playful array of European domestic objects creates an inviting, almost homely kitchen atmosphere in the breezy front breakfast bar.