We spoke with chef on the eve of Clover’s first anniversary to chat community, customers, and the importance of understanding your concept before you open.

With hospitality impresario Lyndon Kubis (The Moon, The Alps, The Hills) behind the curtain and chef extraordinaire Charley Snadden-Wilson on the pans, Richmond wine bar Clover was always destined for deliciousness. After opening in November 2022, the 50-seater quickly became one of the best reasons to find yourself on Swan Street, and that’s thanks in no small part to the great things hitting the pass.

Clover is best known for generous hospitality and thoughtfully, carefully prepared wine and food with a focus on the producers we work with.

How did Clover first come to be?
It was born post-lockdown, following a residency cooking at The Moon. Lyndon Kubis and I developed a wonderful working relationship and decided to take it to another level.

I’m celebrating Clover’s one-year anniversary by cooking a lunch at Clover with my good friend Tom Campbell (ex-Summertown Aristoligist), with special bottles pouring by the glass selected by the magnificent Lyndon Kubis, followed by a little party; details to follow.

Our favourite dish is honey bread with herbes de Provence. It’s the only mainstay on our menu. We bake it in the oven using residual heat from the night before.

Our greatest supporters have been our Swan Street community, our team, family and each other.

An unexpected new skill I’ve learnt is if you can’t do something, Airtasker can.

If someone asked for advice on opening their new venue, I would tell them know exactly what you want to be before you open. You can always grow and develop but it is very hard to change the direction of a venue six months down the line.

I’m most proud of the team we have. Without them none of this is possible.

And I’m most excited about the future because the economic climate can only get better. Fingers crossed.

This final question was asked by last month’s featured business owner, Jung Eun Chae of Chae: Is there one thing you wish you had done differently in the past year?
Built more storage and installed more powerpoints.

Clover, 193 Swan St, Richmond, (03) 9421 2645, open 5pm-10pm Tue-Wed, noon-10pm Thu, noon-11pm Fri-Sat, noon-5pm Sun, clover.wine@clover.wine