Proper & Son
The menu is rewritten every week from whatever the stalls around it have in, which is the one advantage a cook can have inside a market and almost nobody takes.
Why go
Eugene Lavery had twenty-five years in London and Melbourne restaurants and a cafe of his own in Black Rock before he took a stall in the South Melbourne Market food hall, at the Coventry Street end (Broadsheet). He describes the operation as fast food service with a slow food ethos, setting the menu weekly based on what we find within the Market and what's in season
(South Melbourne Market). The build is deliberately plain, high ceilings and recycled timber, arranged so the open kitchen is what you look at while they cook your food. Coffee came from Toby's Estate as of Broadsheet's profile. The house sodas have run to things like rosehip and mint.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Market Roast Roll. Free-range roast chicken with sage, onion and cranberry stuffing, or corned wagyu brisket with pickles, cabbage and mustard. Whatever salads are on that week, since they change.
- Avoid: Monday and Thursday, when the stall does not trade at all, and Tuesday afternoon, since Tuesday is a limited menu that stops at 11am.
What locals & experts say
- Eugene Lavery, chef and owner, on the trading model, in the market's own trader register. He runs it, so this is his own description:
fast food service with a slow food ethos, setting the menu weekly based on what we find within the Market and what's in season.
2 - Broadsheet, on how that lands on the plate:
Meals here are honest to the ingredients but inspired in their flavour combinations; whether it's a sage, onion and cranberry chicken stuffing, or the combination of rosehip and mint in one of Lavery's house-made sodas.
1 - No critic and no chef. Nobody with a byline has assessed the cooking, and no Melbourne chef names it across 74 picks by 44 working chefs and writers. This is a well-run market stall rather than a room anyone has ruled on, and the entry says so.3
Good to know
- Where: Stall S13 in the Food Hall, South Melbourne Market, Coventry Street end.
- Timing: Tuesday 7.30 to 11am on a limited menu, Wednesday 7.30am to 4pm, Friday 7.30am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 8am to 4pm. Closed Monday and Thursday.
- Booking: walk-in. Private functions and catering are available.
- Pairs with: the market itself, and Swords Select in Aisle B for a bottle on the way out.
- Diet: no allergen or dietary statement is published, so nothing is flagged.
- Hygiene: Victoria publishes no venue ratings, only Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions under s.53D of the Food Act 1984, and this venue is not on it.4
Verdict
could-visit — Eugene Lavery spent twenty-five years in London and Melbourne kitchens and then took a stall in the middle of South Melbourne Market, where he writes the menu weekly from whatever the traders around him have that week. His own description is the best one going: 'fast food service with a slow food ethos.' The signature is the Market Roast Roll, either free-range chicken with sage, onion and cranberry stuffing or corned wagyu brisket with pickles, cabbage and mustard, and there is a rotating set of salads alongside it. Broadsheet notes the house-made sodas run to combinations like rosehip and mint, and the kitchen is open so you watch the roll being built. It is a genuinely good market breakfast and lunch rather than a destination, nobody with a byline has assessed the food in a decade, and the hours are the thing that decides your trip: Tuesday is a limited menu until eleven, Monday and Thursday are nothing at all. Combine it with the market itself and with Swords Select in Aisle B and the morning works.