Eat & Drink

Bar Margaux Ain Raadik

At any time of the day or night, no matter what you crave, there’s a venue to satisfy. From lunch with local flair to late-night bites, Melbourne’s got it all.

For the Night Owls

What to do when it’s past your bedtime and you’re very hungry? Head to Shujinko, which brings tonkotsu ramen, Japan’s comfort food, to late-night revellers. At the Flinders Lane location, last orders on Friday and Saturday are at 10.30pm. Noodles of the Thai variety, barbecued dishes and more is on offer at BKK until late each night. Impress a date at Bar Margaux, where cocktails, wine and French comfort food, including incredible steak frites, are served until 3am on Friday and Saturday. +shujinko.com.au +bkk.melbourne +barmargaux.com.au

Sustainable Noshing

Duck into Union Kiosk for vegan jaffles, coffee and sweets. Everything possible is reused, recycled and composted in an attempt to create zero waste. Causing quite a stir is Parcs – that’s ‘scrap’ spelled

Shujinko Julian Kingma

backwards. Chef Dennis Yong creates most of the menu at the 20-seat wine bar from food waste – over-ripe fruit, flawed vegetables, peels and the likes – and each dish has an element of fermentation. Don’t miss the umami e pepe, a riff on the Italian classic. +unionkiosk.com.au +parcs.com.au

Local Flavours

The waterfall behind the bar represents the larger story of Yarra Falls. Owner Brendan Keown wants to tell the story of Melbourne, and the land along its river. Expect cocktails from Victorian spirits and local botanicals, Melbourne’s finest craft beers and bar snacks made using seasonal produce. Get as close to the river as possible without getting wet at Yarra Botanica. The twolevel floating eatery and bar, with amazing city views, presents an all-local line-up of food and drinks. Yarra Falls, 381 Flinders Lane, Melbourne +yarrabotanica.com.au

Presented by RMIT Marketing faculty. Written by Professor Francis Farrelly, Associate Professor Bernardo Figueiredo and Ben Ice. Part of a series of stories on Melbourne’s coffee culture. Look out for coming editions to read more.

Every Love Story Is Different

These three travellers are from vastly different backgrounds, but each has been seduced by Melbourne’s famous coffee and lively cafe culture.

When Johan moved to Melbourne from Belgium for work in 2016, his colleagues didn’t give him long before indoctrinating him into the culture. “I came here and actually wanted to go to my hotel and take a nap, because it was a 28-hour flight,” he recalls. “But while I was arriving and had just put everything inside the hotel room, I saw a colleague and he already wanted to go out for coffee.”

Feast of Merit Josie Withers

Sadaf

Kathy & Johan Patricia

The quality and rituals of Melbourne coffee helped him foster connections, whether with friends or at work. In Belgium, people help themselves from the office coffee machine every morning. But in Melbourne, Johan loves waiting as his colleagues arrive to head to the cafe together. It gives them the chance to chat about the weekend or have a relaxed discussion about work. Right now, he’s setting out on another all-too-familiar Melbourne cafe journey: his office has relocated, so the hunt is on for a new “favourite one” – the pleasurable place where they reinforce their bonds each day.

Newcomers can explore and get to know the city cafe by cafe. Sadaf, an RMIT PhD student, let coffee be her guide when she moved to Melbourne from Pakistan in 2019. She found an online list of the city’s best cafes and set out with a friend. After ticking some off the list and stumbling across others, she settled on a favourite: Patricia. It’s a hole in the wall where people buy their coffee and often drink it in the street. It’s very different from the sit-down experience back home in Pakistan, where the venue, occasion and service are more important. Patricia’s casual atmosphere, being in direct contact with the city’s vibrant streets and the speed of service are all part of the appeal for Sadaf. Now enjoying the laneways amid a sea of passersby is part of what she loves most about Melbourne. “The whole idea of hidden cafes, hidden bars, that’s a huge thing that I hadn’t seen anywhere before.”

Every Love Story Is Different

Continued

To Be Frank Ain Raadik

Kathy moved to Melbourne from Vietnam for undergrad study in 2011. She loves the city’s diversity, culture and easy-going people. Early on she noticed how “every corner has a coffee shop” and found cafes to be the perfect spot to bond with friends and her new city, as well as deal with the stress of university. The people of Vietnam enjoy strong coffee, so initially Kathy was unimpressed by the ubiquitous Melbourne lattes she was being served. That was until her friends advised her to customise. She was intimidated at first, “stressed out in front of the barista”, but her friends’ encouragement helped her unlock new worlds of flavour. Despite the difference in what’s on offer, she feels that coffee serves the same purpose in Melbourne and Vietnam: “to connect people. Everything starts with coffee, breaks with coffee and ends with coffee,” Kathy says about her life in Melbourne. And she too has become hooked on the camaraderie of the morning cup with colleagues: “If I don’t go, I feel like I missed out on the conversation.”

Melbourne cafes host a million moments – travellers making new friends, wanderers finding the next best spot, or locals sharing a moment of calm before returning to the hustle. When you think about it like that, it’s no wonder they’re so celebrated here and around the world.

A sunny afternoon. A warm night beneath the stars. The weather is getting better every day, so book a table outside and celebrate the arrival of spring and all the season has to offer.

Take It Outside

Sunnyside Lunch

Book a table on the terrace at NGV’s Garden Restaurant. Here, you can relax overlooking the gallery’s spectacular garden while enjoying Iberian-inspired seasonal dishes by Bar Lourinha (until 9 October). Head to Pepe’s Italian, where you can settle beneath the coral tree in the garden lounge or gather with friends in the beer garden. +ngv.melbourne +pepesitalian.com.au

Pepe’s Italian

Laneway Life

Back-alley venues aren’t new for Melburnians, but Sojourn is a little bit different. Spanning New Chancery Lane, this blue, two-storey eatery serves creative share plates on the ground floor and inventive cocktails on the roof. Hardware Lane is always bustling, and there are many spots with outdoor tables from where to watch the crowds. Try eatery Funghi e Tartufo, where the menu is plant based and earth friendly. +facebook.com/

sojournmelbourne

+funghietartufo.com.au

Nights Out

Whether you’re dining à deux or gathering the clan, book a table at Arbory Bar and Eatery. There’s something for everyone and a covering of plane trees, but the view comes alive after dark as the lights of Southbank begin sparkling. Ready to take it to the roof? Five floors above Bomba Bar, surrounded by skyscrapers, is its rooftop bar, where tapas and Spanish drinks are served. +arbory.com.au +bombabar.com.au

Sojourn

Arbory Bar and Eatery

Raising the Hotel Bar

La Madonna at Next Hotel

They’ve always been enigmatic. People meet in them, sometimes only for the time it takes to finish a drink. But Melbourne’s new breed of hotel bars offers something more, creating destinations you’ll want to visit even if you’re not staying the night.

At Next Hotel, discover classy La Madonna (nexthotelmelbourne.com). Cocktails aged in barrels are the forte here. Order a Last Word – Chartreuse, Luxardo, gin and fresh lime matured in ex-Chartreuse barrels for 24 weeks – to discover something special.

Toma (it stands forTaste of Melbourne, Australia) is the restaurant and bar at Hyatt Centric (hyatt.com), and it’s taken one aspect of the city and reinterpreted it on its drink list. A selection of bottled cocktails for two takes Melbourne’s favourite obsession – coffee – and gives it extra kick. Of course, there’s an Espresso Martini, but the Blanco Melburnian (Stache Coffee Liqueur, amaretto, espresso and oat milk) is delicious. There are more coffee cocktails at Curious (curiousmelbourne.com), the ultraglamorous bar in the W Hotel.

In a nod to its former life as the site of the Cobb & Co stables, voco Melbourne Central (ihg.com) has opened Blacksmith Bar. It’s an intimate spot, where you can check out the views while sipping on the signature Flamingo Sour. There’s more history on offer at Hilton Little Queen Street (hilton.com), set in a building constructed in the 1930s. Its Douglas Club is moody, opulent and serves drinks like the Lamington (rum, berries, sweet vermouth, cacao butter and coconut).

Curious at the W Hotel

Blacksmith Bar at voco Melbourne Central