The city is just waking up outside Regale — one of Melbourne’s newest and most inspired venues.
The Carlton fine-dining spot, which has just been awarded a Chef’s Hat by the Australian Good Food Guide, is preparing for a big Sunday.
The scene, filmed at 8.30am one September morning in 2025, is about to turn incredibly violent.
A “drunk” man has entered the venue and is making odd requests. He wants a phone. And he wants bottles of whisky.
Bangkok-born Sutinee Suntivatana — or just “Tinee” — is one of the city’s finest culinary talents.
The chef and business owner behind a number of hugely-popular Melbourne ventures, including this one, says what followed that day should put the city on notice — it is no longer safe and unprovoked, vicious acts of violence are happening every single day.
In a video not seen until now, the man is confronted by staff before exploding in a fit of rage.
He grabs a full glass bottle of water and throws it at a staff member. It shatters on impact and seriously injures the young worker who is left covered in blood and needing to be hospitalised.
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The offender shouts “f*** head” at the top of his lungs before casually walking out the door.
Speaking exclusively to news.com.au, Tinee says the frightening incident took place the morning after a huge anti-immigration rally in the CBD where workers were already on edge.
The injured worker, who did not wish to use his full name, told news.com.au he tried to de-escalate the situation when the man first walked in.
“He came in really intoxicated and just started yelling,” the worker said.
“A lot of swear words. He asked me for a phone and I politely declined, I couldn’t just give my phone to a stranger.
“He got more mad. In order to protect the other customers inside, I approached him and said, ‘You have to calm down, sir, I will try to help you as much as I can’.
“I don’t think that he wanted to cooperate. He just barged in, straight to the bar, took a couple of bottles of whisky. Again I tried to tell him to calm down, looking him in the eyes.
“I think that kind of offended him. He took one of the thick water bottles and threw it straight at my head. I tried to dodge it but I was too slow.
“At first it was just total pain, I didn’t expect it to be serious. I started touching my head. Blood was everywhere.”
The worker, who has since left the venue, says he had “quite a big cut on the right side of my head, above my ear”.
Pictures shared with news.com.au show a deep gash requiring several stitches.
“The ambulance came pretty quick, patched me up and sent me to the nearest hospital in Carlton. It was quite terrifying, but I think it’s one of the risks of working in hospitality.
“Hopefully Melbourne will be much safer in the future.”
Just how safe — or unsafe — Melbourne has become for hospitality workers has been front of mind for Suntivatana, who posted a heartbreaking video to social media earlier this week that went viral.
The owner of Carlton brunch icon Humble Rays, Japanese matcha hotspot Tori’s Cafe and Carlton restaurant and co-working space Midday chose Melbourne when she moved to Australia as a student more than 20 years ago.
She says the city she used to know has changed dramatically, particularly after the pandemic, as is now a frightening place to do business.
In the last three years, her venues have been attacked seven separate times, including once where a man kicked the door in only to return the following day asking for free coffee.
“Melbourne, are we really going to live like this?,” she asked on Instagram this week.
“I’m just a small-business owner trying to make an honest living,” she wrote.
“Like so many others, we work hard, create jobs, support our community, pay our bills, and keep going even when the cost of running a business keeps getting higher.
“We’ve had windows smashed, doors forced open, things stolen. We’ve had calls in the middle of the night telling us that another one of our shops has been broken into.
“And every time it happens, we pick ourselves up, repair the damage, improve security, add more cameras, spend more money and hope it doesn’t happen again.
“But how many times are small business owners expected to do this?”
She acknowledged that police are working hard and that there is no simple fix to crime — it is a “complicated issue”, she said.
“But surely the answer cannot simply be that business owners have to accept this as part of living and doing business in Melbourne.
“People sometimes say, ‘You should have better security,’ or ‘You should have done more to protect your shop.’
“But why should the responsibility always fall on the victim?
“Why should hardworking people have to go to bed wondering if the next phone call at 3am will be someone telling them their shop has been broken into again?
“We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking to feel safe. We are asking for accountability. We are asking for something to change.
“Small businesses already carry so much — rising costs, rent, wages, bills and the responsibility of keeping people employed. We shouldn’t also have to live with the constant fear that someone can simply smash their way into everything we have worked so hard to build.
“I love Melbourne. I’ve built my life and my businesses here, and I still believe in this city. But something needs to change. Because accepting this as ‘normal’ should never be the answer.”
Just last week in Melbourne, a Brunswick East chef had to fight off a machete-wielding man using a chair in an attack caught on camera.
Hari Soni was at the Mix Spice Restaurant on Lygon St about 8pm on Tuesday when a man tried to steal his locked hatchback.
The would-be thief tried to get inside the car, which was parked behind the restaurant, when he was confronted by Mr Soni, who was holding a chair.
“He tried to attack me. I was confronting with the chair,” Mr Soni said.
“He tried to attack me several times, he did several attempts. He took out the big machetes and he was trying to stab me.
“I was scared. I had a thought of my family, because if something happens to me, who going to look after them?”
Mr Soni said the incident left him “traumatised”.“I was very stressed last night, I couldn’t sleep,” he said.
Ms Suntivatana feels the same way. Online, she wrote: “Honestly, the money isn’t the hardest part. I go to bed at 1am and wake up at 5am. The stress builds a little more every day.
“We can fix a broken door. We can replace a smashed window. But the stress and fear stay with you long after everything else has been repaired.”
Read related topics:ImmigrationMelbourne