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After doing bowlo dining their way, Anisha Halik and Jacob D’Vauz are turning their attention to the flavours of the Malay archipelago.
Day in and day out across Victoria Park, restaurateurs and cooks work tirelessly to keep the tastes and traditions of Malaysia alive.
The folks at Sedap Place are all about rendang, fried chicken, nasi lemak and other halal comfort dishes; while the focus at Yum Yum Tree is on Chinese-Malay cooking and breakfasts: top of the morning to you bak kut teh, congee, toast sets and other kopitiam hits.
But in case anyone felt Vic Park’s Malaysian food scene wasn’t strong enough already, the opening of Magnolia later this month looks set to underscore the suburb’s reputation as Perth’s premier Malaysian – and perhaps even Asian – dining destination. Just don’t expect a colour-by-numbers Malaysian restaurant.
The surprises begin with the setting. Magnolia isn’t a bricks and mortar entity, but a two-night pop-up taking over Modus Coffee.
So while the airy, light-filled space at Vic Quarter will continue to sling terrific coffee and Goods Bakery pastries by day, on Thursday and Friday nights, the cafe becomes a softly lit dining room with tables dressed in screen-printed maroon tablecloths, lace and plastic sheets and the playlist shifts to lesser-heard 90s R&B, hip-hop and breakdancing jams.
Equally unexpected will be the cooking. While there’s a strong Malaysian thread tying together dishes on the menu, the focus isn’t on a specific country, but rather the entire Malay archipelago.
Or at least as experienced by Magnolia’s owners Anisha Halik and Jacob D’Vauz, the husband-and-wife team behind the Special Delivery pop-up at the Doubleview Bowls Club.
While the cooking at Special Delivery, by necessity, covered everything from edible Australiana to Korean barbecue – the Doubleview bowlo kitchen is now run by roaming Taiwanese food kitchen, Jujube Dining – Magnolia is a deep dive into the couple’s shared Malay heritage that includes Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, all filtered through their own hospitality experiences and values. (Halik has spent close to 15 years working in fish and chippers while D’Vauz counts Rockpool Bar & Grill and South Fremantle’s Madalena’s among his previous workplaces.)
So the fruity sweetness of great pineapple helps acar pickles shine; goldband snapper roasted in a custom-built infrared Zesti oven is cloaked with a cooked sambal made by one of Halik’s aunties while the fish is served on pristine Stakehill Produce cherry tomatoes slowly cooked down into a sweet-sour mess; while deboned chicken wings get stuffed with curry paste and served in a bold, woody Malay-style curry.
The lacey flatbread roti jala aka net bread is painstakingly made in-house, and Baked Goods croissant dough offcut gets cleverly upcycled into brilliantly flaky roti. In short: these are flavours Halik and D’Vauz grew up with, reimagined through observation, memory and instinct.
“This food represents the identity we longed for growing up,” says D’Vauz.
While the story of Magnolia is deeply rooted in the past and family stories and traditions, it’s equally cognisant of the now and the hospitality family Halik and D’Vauz have gathered around themselves.
Chicho Gelato have collaborated on the dessert offering; Hannah Budge of Tuart Hill lunch bar Strollio’s has joined Magnolia as creative director; Chrissie Lam – a front-of-house professional that D’Vauz met at the start of his career – has taken on the role of restaurant manager; while Michael Rainone has come across from the bowls club and is overseeing the excellent non-alcoholic drinks program that touches on Malay favourites including Ribena fizzes and Milo dinosaurs. (It’s also worth mentioning that the pop-up is entirely halal, so leave the BYO at home.)
While Magnolia, on its surface, may appear to be the sum of unlikely people and influences, it’s worth remembering that the story of the Malay archipelago has also been defined by collaboration and crossover.
Based on the success of Special Delivery, it seems Halik and D’Vauz – and fellow Special Delivery collaborators including Halik’s sister Leya and Gilo Bolide – know a thing or two about working hard to bring people together.
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