Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. In the court of the Queen of South Yarra, one is greeted with a flute of Laurent-Perrier, a wedge of famous carrot cake, and – if one is in good favour – a “love you, darling”. Did I say Queen? “ Empress , darling ,” purrs Heidi, owner and proprietor of 179 Domain Food and Wine.
Domain Road, where the empress holds court, groans under the weight of old money, and she knows every millionaire. Heidi, the empress of South Yarra, and proprietor of 179 Cafe. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui “Solly Lew, Mrs Lew, the new one, the old one, all the in-betweens, the exes,” she says with a laugh.
The Pratts. Oh, and the footballers! “He’ll say, ‘Hi, I’m Nathan’. And I’ll say, ‘Hi, I’m Heidi’.
I don’t know?” So it goes in South Yarra, which is among Melbourne’s most glitzy postcodes. “Anyone who is anyone is here,” says Heidi, who – in true South Yarra style – asks us not to reveal her surname. “Anyone who was anyone is still here.
And anyone that will be anyone is down there at the school. She waves a hand down Domain Road, toward Melbourne Grammar, where tuition runs up to $46,540 a year. Any film starring “the British Dames” – Helen Mirren or Judi Dench – will reliably receive positive reviews from the local set, says Benjamin Zeccola, CEO of Palace Cinemas, which operates Cinema Como on the corner of Toorak and Chapel.
An action movie might draw a sniffed, “People who.