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Jamsheed Is Making Preston Feel Like Home
Preston’s Jamsheed is stepping into a generous new era, with chef John Cassie bringing nostalgia, comfort and cleverness to the kitchen, alongside the expressive Victorian wines that have long made it a northside favourite.
Some venues arrive in a suburb with a floor plan, a wine list and a good logo. Others seem to find their place more gradually, through regulars, late afternoons, birthday tables, staff who remember how you drink, and the strange, private alchemy that turns a room into part of the neighbourhood. Jamsheed has always belonged to that second category: an urban winery in Preston, a dining room with a little lived-in romance, a serious wine label at its back, and Gary Mills, Elika Rowell and their family at the centre of it, keeping the whole thing generous rather than grand.
After a period of recalibration, Jamsheed feels newly awake to what made it loved in the first place. Mills and Rowell opened the Preston venue in 2019 as the physical home of Jamsheed Wines, a label already respected for expressive, site-driven Victorian wines. The room was never built for hush or ceremony. It was built for wine in its natural habitat: on the table, beside food, with conversation running over the edges.
It helps that the place has texture. The industrial shell could have been hard and echoing, but instead it has warmth, a little northside bohemia and the feeling of a house party hosted by people with better wine than you. In winter, the room turns amber and close. In summer, the outdoor area opens up, all clinking glasses, late sun and the gentle collapse of anyone’s sensible plan to leave early.
Chef John Cassie’s arrival has given the kitchen the same relaxed confidence. His food is clever and sincerely delicious, full of comfort, memory and enough technical nous to make the menu feel special without turning dinner into a dissertation. “There’s definitely a bit of nostalgia woven through the menu,” he says. “It draws on the kinds of dishes I grew up with, generous and comforting food.” That might mean chicken schnitzel with nori aioli and fermented cabbage, returned to the menu because some things deserve another life. It might be cocktail prawns with coconut chilli sauce, pickled papaya and rice cracker, or duck rillettes with kohlrabi, fresh horseradish and mustard vinaigrette. It might be sirloin with mustard, salsa verde or miso butter, the steak night order that earns its own small silence (especially once the whipped miso butter hits the palate).
The menu has a lovely read of how people want to eat now. Oysters with fermented Kashmiri chilli hot sauce. Woodfired flatbread with cashew butter. Fries with aioli. Blood orange and chocolate sorbet tartufo. An affogato with whiskey liqueur and nutmeg. Nothing feels overworked. Everything seems to know its place beside a glass.
The events calendar carries that same spirit of invitation. Wax in the Sheed brings DJs into the Dive Bar each month. Yum Sheed takes a playful run at the suburban Australian memory of yum cha, with sesame prawn toast, tapioca sweet potato dumplings and woodfired pork jowl with char siu bao. From July, monthly Chef’s Table dinners will hand the menu over to different members of the Jamsheed team.
“People want trust and good food,” says Gary. Elika puts it just as plainly: “Being accessible and approachable is very important to both of us, for our locals and the broader community.”
That is the charm of Jamsheed right now. It is not trying to dazzle Preston from a distance. It is doing something harder and more useful: making the neighbourhood feel fed, gathered and proud of what it has.
Jamsheed feels settled in the loveliest way: generous food, serious wine and a room that makes Preston feel brighter, warmer and a little more spoiled for having it so close. Still thirsty? Explore Melbourne’s best new bars and best wine bars for your next pour.
