Melbourne Park, home of the Australian Open, is more than twice the size of the next largest tennis major site. The more than 90,000 daily visitors at the 2025 event spend time mixing both tennis and entertainment across the nearly 100-acre festival atmosphere. And festivals—not to mention tennis tournaments—require food.
With the ample grounds space, the Australian Open has created a variety of fan-specific areas focused on lounging, gathering, music, tennis and, of course, food. The two largest sites near the courts come in the form of Grand Slam Oval and Garden Square. It’s within these spaces that an Australian food and beverage scene takes shape.
“Food in this city is such an integral part of the landscape,” Fern Barrett, head of product growth and innovation for Tennis Australia and formerly of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, tells me. “I felt there was an opportunity to up our game. We are almost positioning it as a food festival in its own right. Everyone comes to watch the tennis, but they want to eat and drink and be entertained.”
Logistically, Chicago-based Levy operates the concessions within the concourses of the main stadiums—Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and John Cain Arena—as part of year-long service, and the AO operates and manages the sites across the grounds.
Barrett says the goal is to represent and promote the best of food across the country. That is ever-changing. Each year, the AO retains only about 25% of the site’s fan favorites and brings in 75% new offerings, all to evolve and ensure fans coming year after year have some of their favorites, but also new experiences.
“It represents some of the best Australian cuisine and diverse cultural variety,” Barrett says. “It is also accessible from a price perspective and is really delicious.”
When building out the plan for the 22 food locations outside the arenas, Barrett works to ensure they offer something different than what is inside the venues. Part of that effort has led to creating their own signature items.
New in 2025, the tournament crafted the AO Frappe, a grab-and-go iced coffee product to keep the coffee-loving Melbourne fans happy all day—and without long lines. “Let’s do it in a fun, innovative happy way,” Barrett says about the plan. “Everyone is loving it.”
Arguably the most popular signature food item on site is the Peach Melbourne, a play off the famed Peach Melba dessert. This version is a peach and raspberry signature soft serve made from local Victorian produce. Based on the success of the Peach Melbourne—it sold 40,000 units in its first year, 80,000 in year two and the AO expects to sell 120,000 this year—Barrett says that when they create something uniquely AO it gives fans an experience they can look forward to getting only during the tournament.
Damian Iaconis of Piccolo Panini Bar, a popular Melbourne eatery just over a year old, is making his first appearance at the AO and has a similar philosophy. Alongside the popular cotoletta panini—the most popular at the Melbourne location and on the AO grounds—Iaconis also brought back a popular winter-only limited-edition meatball panini.
“We try to keep it as exclusive as possible,” Iaconis tells me. “We thought when it came to the AO, we can’t look past the meatball. It is the perfect opportunity on the biggest stage to bring it back.”
Finding partners like the Piccolo Panini Bar is part of the annual plan. About 80% of the food from the AO is a brand partner that has popped up on site, but each are pushed to create something special or different just for the tournament. Examples include Melbourne’s Fishbowl, which is making sodas sold only in New York available at the AO. There’s Julia Busuttil Nishimura creating AO-specific Mediterranean salads at Ostro and upscale Entrecote crafting a special steak and frites burger on site.
“We are putting Melbourne hospitality on a global stage,” Barrett says.
Each year, the AO wants to help expose a mission-based brand. Recently, the AO exposed a First Nations popcorn stand that since grew massively after the event. This year’s social enterprise promotes inclusion of workers with disabilities within the mainstream workforce via All Things Equal and its popular tennis ball tart.
Focusing not just on big brands, but also smaller entities offers a benefit to them. Iaconis says he’s received help from the AO team on how to logistically tackle a festival-style experience. “From a brand perspective, getting our name out and showcasing our product and our service in front of this many people is what we want,” he says, adding that while returning to the AO would be a bonus, this experience sets them up to grow in a variety of ways.
While fans can pop around for D.O.C. pizza, A1 Bakery, CDMX Taqueria, The Filipino Project, Good Days, Tennessee Wingboys and the special Alexei Popyrin chicken sub at Topsnacc, fans of a more beverage-fueled experience also have the popular Courtside Bar adjacent to Court 6.
The general AO audience isn’t the only group coming to the tournament. There’s also plenty of premium throughout the site. Near the 3,000-seat 1573 Arena, the premium Riverside Social club welcomes Australians Grant Simillie and Blake Shailes bringing their Los Angeles-based Grandmaster Recorders to Melbourne.
Smillie, owner, says that when he and chef Shailes went to L.A. to open their restaurant the goal was to bring Australia to the United States. Now the pair can return the favor, with L.A. coming to Australia. “We wanted to give Australians a taste of what we do in America,” Shailes tells me. “It is kind of like this flip, which is fun.”
The team is using recipes from L.A., but with Australian summer ingredients, mixing in both lighter and heavier options for the premium clientele popping in and out throughout the day. The pair is bringing some of their greatest hits from L.A. to Melbourne, highlighted by a caviar cannoli with Yarra Valley caviar. “These are super premium and ultra delicious,” Smillie says. “They look fun, taste fun. At the tennis, you don’t want to overthink it. You want to make it fun and enjoyable.”
This story was originally published on forbes.com.
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