As thousands of visitors flock to Melbourne for the 2025 Australian Open, they’ll not only experience some amazing tennis, they will also have the chance to enjoy incredible food provided by Victorian small businesses.
15 January 2025
A couple of quick questions for anyone attending this year’s Australian Open, do you know the current ranking of American Jess Pegula?
Or how about whether Alex de Minaur hits a one-handed or two-handed backhand?
Chances are you can’t answer those questions, but what about your drink of choice at Melbourne Park? Or what’s the best meal you’ve had while watching the tennis action?
Despite being first and foremost a world-class sporting event, the Australian Open Grand Slam is so much more, and the food and drink scene is an essential part of the three-week tournament when Melbourne becomes the centre of the sporting world.
Charlie Carrington is an experienced and decorated local chef who knows all about the thrill and excitement of working at the Open and is now bringing his Prahran based Tennessee Wingboys to Melbourne Park.
“This is my fifth time working at the Australian Open and the thing I always look forward to is just being a part of it.”
Founder of Atlas Dining in South Yarra, Charlie has worked across a range of locations at the Australian Open, but this year he’s bringing something new, Tennessee style chicken.
“Tennessee Wingboys is Nashville hot chicken; they’ve got this fried chicken culture. It started out as quite a basic food and people developed their menus.”
“I love that they do all the sides, they’re all fresh and delicious, it’s just an interesting food.” Charlie said.
Tennessee Wingboys is one of 21 different restaurants that will showcase their offerings to the thousands of tennis fans from Victoria, across Australia and around the world and Charlie is excited at the prospect of unmatched exposure for his business and many other Victorian small businesses.
“Being at the Australian Open, such a world class event, there’s a lot of marketing and PR that comes from it. If you’re into food and go for a little walk around, they’re picking some pretty talented people. After the tennis you always see an uplift, we’ll probably serve up to 30,000 unique customers and even if around 10% of them try our menu, we’re full for the year.”
Feeding all those hungry tennis fans over three weeks requires major uplift in staffing and Charlie has been fully prepared for the rush with an increased list of workers, many of whom are working at the Open for the first time.
“On the roster this week between the venue and here, we’ve probably gone from 30 to 55 staff, you’re almost doubling your team.”
“I’ve about 5 or 6 (workers) that are either current or former staff of mine from Atlas, then for my other casual team members I just put the word out. It’s a very young crew, this is where they get their experience,” Charlie explained.
The Australian Open is just the start of Victoria’s major event calendar each year and Charlie has always been keen to maximise exposure for his businesses through events in the sporting capital.
“I’ve done every single major event in Melbourne, the Melbourne Cup, the Australian F1 Grand Prix, I love doing events and it’s something I want to do more and more. Melbourne is the event city of Australia, it’s a great opportunity to be a part of it, the people get out and have a lot of fun. I want to do this every year.”
The Australian Open is part of Victoria’s major event calendar and in 2024 generated more than $533 million in economic benefits for the state. Over the past decade, the event has contributed more than $3 billion in value to the economy and generates more than 2,300 full-time equivalent jobs for Victoria every year, as the Grand Slam continues to welcome thousands of visitors to Melbourne.
You can find Tennessee Wingboys in the Western Court precinct throughout the length of the Open which runs to Sunday 26 January.
Learn more about the range of food options at the 2025 Australian Open.
