Mark + Vinny’s, the Surry Hills restaurant known for its vegan menu and rainbow pasta colours, has recently opened a sister eatery in Byron Bay.
Like the original venue, the new eatery is the project of co-founders Mark Filippelli and Vince Pizzinga, the former of which was also behind the launch of Melbourne’s Matcha Mylkbar, where the world’s first trademarked vegan egg was invented; and Weirdoughs, a plant-based patisserie known for its dairy-free butter croissants.
MVP, the name of the Byron Bay venue, is a play on Mark + Vinny’s Place, while also standing in for ‘most valuable producers’. Filippelli and Pizzinga have said the aim of the new menu is to spotlight the artisans and producers of Byron Bay who are pioneering sustainability eating in the region.
The food takes its cues from Italian home-style cooking and family-style share dishes. Signatures from the Surry Hills venue that have travelled across include Bucatini Carbonara, which uses vegan egg made from local heirloom tomatoes grown by Coopers Shoot Tomatoes; and the Blue Spirulina Linguini with blue swimmer crab, white bisque, confit cherry tomatoes and soft shell crab.
New to the MVP lineup is a mushroom ragu that uses Byron hinterland mushrooms from Byron Gourmet Mushrooms. The dish is served with a mushroom capsule, filled with forest mushroom powder and medicinal mushrooms that diners can sprinkle over their pasta.
Heading up the kitchen is head chef Brett Luckens, who comes with more than 30 years’ experience in restaurants in Asia, Europe and Australia. Highlights of Luckens’ career include training at three Michelin star restaurants La Calandre and Bras, a stint as executive chef at Aria Catering, and at The Summit Restaurant with Matt Moran and Michael Moore.
At MVP, Luckens will oversee a menu that is more than 50 per cent plant-based, with produce sourced sustainably and in-season from farms with full traceability.
MVP Byron Bay is open from Monday to Saturday for dinner service. A rooftop pizza bar above the existing restaurant is slated to open later this year, scheduled to coincide with the beginning of summer.