O'Donnell, with her partner Tony Knox, opened her restaurant Mietta's in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy North, in June 1974.
[citation needed] In February 1992, Jex Saarelaht and Kate Ceberano performed at the restaurant.
O'Donnell was killed in a car accident in Tasmania while travelling to speak at a food and wine seminar.
[1] The cocktail by the name of Japanese slipper was created in 1984 by Jean-Paul Bourguignon at Mietta's Restaurant.
In 1995, along with her partner Tony Knox, Len Vorster, Michael Easton and Lauris Elms, O'Donnell co-founded an annual art song competition which she ran herself.