Chefs Shannon Martinez and Ian Curley join forces for Lona Misa at Ovolo South Yarra

In October 2020, Ovolo became the first hotel group in the world to go vegetarian. Now it's cementing its stance by engaging Melbourne's darling of vegan dining, Shannon Martinez (Smith & Daughters and Smith & Deli), as a creative culinary partner of Lona Misa restaurant, which opens early April inside the new 123-room Ovolo South Yarra hotel.

Martinez is bringing her creative vegan dishes south of the river for the first time and is also branching into vegetarian food, which means organic eggs your way, with a wedge of tortilla and white beans braised in saffron sofrito for breakfast.

"I'll be revisiting my Latin roots and doing my classic family way of eating," says Martinez, who will offer vegetarian and vegan versions of dishes such as moqueca (a Brazilian seafood stew), whole roasted peri-peri cauliflower and old Smith & Daughters favourites, such as her vegan play on Spanish blood sausage morcilla. Dessert will be tarts by the portion.

The team is heavy duty. Hospitality stalwart Ian Curley, of Kirk's Wine Bar and French Saloon, has designed the high-tech kitchen, complete with Josper oven.

Ovolo Australia food and beverage director Jared Thibault has put together a list of seasonal cocktails filled with ferments and house-made shrubs for the bar, while Sydney-based design and architecture studio Luchetti Krelle is expected to deliver a retro-chic meets pop art design.

In-room dining will feature a breakfast box with a Smith & Deli vegan croissant and "an incredible room service burger for when you're drunk at 3am," says Martinez.

Curley and Martinez first crossed paths in 2001 at the Supper Club, and while she laughs about the fact he has "absolutely no recognition of (her) whatsoever", he's now a massive Martinez fan.

"The stuff she came out with the other day at the tasting, honestly, she does [vegan] garlic prawns that taste better than any garlic prawns I ever had," he says.

Lona Misa will open for breakfast through dinner from early April.

Ovolo Hotel, 230 Toorak Road, South Yarra, ovolohotels.com/ovolo/southyarra