The track record
Four brands.
Distinctly local.
Cafés, neighbourhood restaurants and a showroom café. Each calls for a different concept, with the same attention to the customer, the team and the everyday operation.
Co-founder & GM · 2024–present
Julia’s
A modern Italian for the neighbourhood.
Julia’s brings wood-fired pizza, Italian dining and cocktails to Ringwood North and Doreen. The Ringwood North venue opened in June 2024, according to its official website.
Francis describes the work as a repositioning: refining the food offer, pricing and operation to build a stronger local business. The team now includes 180 people across the two locations, according to Francis.
- Ringwood North
- 150 seats*
- Doreen
- 250 seats*
- Team
- 180 people*
*Figures supplied by Francis, September 2026.
Co-founder · Hawthorn East
Shanklin
A café with the character of its home.
A Victorian terrace, a front courtyard and a menu with a Middle Eastern influence. Shanklin brought a distinctive personality to neighbourhood breakfast and lunch.
Published coverage in 2018 names Francis, his brother Johnny and their friend Aboudy Yaacoub. The City Lane highlighted the café’s focus on simple food and consistency.
Francis’s supplied history places his involvement in 2014–2020. Public profiles give differing start dates, so the founding year is not presented as independently established.
Co-founder · 2020–2024*
Franco & Co
An Italian kitchen at the leafy entrance to Eltham.
Wood-fired pizza, pasta and a relaxed setting for family dinners and time with friends. Franco & Co extended Francis’s experience into a neighbourhood restaurant and bar.
Francis’s account of the project centres on repositioning the venue and bringing the concept, menu and customer experience together.
*Role and dates supplied by Francis. Current reviews describe the venue today, including periods after his involvement.
Licence holder · 2020–2023*
Dutton Café
A different kind of hospitality setting.
Inside Dutton Garage, the café sits alongside classic and collector cars. It is a setting where the hospitality offer needs to work for visitors to the showroom as well as people coming specifically to eat.
Francis reports reshaping the menu and serving more than 1,000 covers a week during his tenure. It adds experience in a distinctive commercial environment to his café and restaurant work.
Explore Dutton Garage*Role, dates and weekly covers supplied by Francis. Historical experience; not a statement of current café management.
The next opportunity
Good hospitality starts
with a conversation.
Have a vacant tenancy, an existing venue or an idea for a partnership? Let’s see what the opportunity could become.
Melbourne, Australia