W: There’s something particularly satisfying about walking into a bar with a big bag of take-out dumplings and dropping them on your table of beer-hungry mates. That’s the move at Mr West, Footscray’s newest venue for lovers of good booze. They offer simple meat and cheese boards themselves, but are happy for you to bring your own nosh from the myriad of local take away joints
W: If you’ve got something unique, you’re going to be a victim of thievery. Forget aesthetics, cocktail recipes and staff, one of the biggest problems at the multi award-winning Black Pearl is missing menus. To deal with it, they’ve done away with the collectable playing cards and simplified the menu to a folded A3 card, diner-style, packed it full of new cocktails and added a map of their favourite spots. They figure people are going to steal it anyways, so why not give them a reason.
W: Friends can be flaky, partners can get mean, but a good cocktail bar can make you fall in love with it over and over again, which is why we’re still hopelessly enamoured with Romeo Lane. They have struck that perfect balance of comfort and class: all your cocktails come in beautiful cut glassware; Tom Waits is on the stereo, followed by a little Stones; and on a chilly night they’ll fire up the open fireplace to turn the charm offensive up to 11.
W: If you’re a true Melburnian, you’ve got the bar you go to play pool at, the bar with a solid wine list, the bar that can mix you a good drink, and the bar you go to just to smash a decent beer. Paradise Alley is all these things and more. The wine list is intelligent and balanced, with nothing over $15 by the glass and heavy leaning on the trendier labels, giving guests exactly what they want without compromising on standards.
W: Hayden Lambert must have gotten used to close quarters at Presgrave Place, because his current digs are almost as compact. His bar is a command centre at the heart of a tiny room, with only a handful of seats facing Lambert as he dispenses drinks that put the art back into artisanal. A bar entirely of his own vision, backed by the skill to execute such an ambitious feat is why we always want to drink cocktails at Above Board.
W: To drink at Liberty is to revel in the best of all booze. The only rule about each drop here is that it must be a superlative example of its style. Whether it’s wine, cider, cocktails, whisky, vermouth or even housemade soda, every item on the long menu is carefully curated, the variety and quality on offer hard to overstate.
W: Lunch here is more than a good meal, it's a lesson in the importance of a life with vision. More than 30 years ago, Marcus and Eva Besen established the vineyards, built the winery, planted the trees, incorporated great architecture and art. Raise a glass to all of that – and try the chicken liver parfait with melba toast – while you toss up between the weekly changing menu and the four-course set menu with optional wine matches. There are some more familiar dishes, perhaps long cooked beef short rib with a bordelaise sauce, but the buzz here is the mix of contemporary comfort and gastronomic adventure.
W: Wine bar? Talk about an understatement. Yering Station is more of a Vino Temple, complete with an avenue of beatified bottles, a pond of contemplation and godly views from the modish seats in the cathedral-high dining area. It is here that Yering's wines are paired with dishes that border on opulent, combining ingredients in unanticipated ways. The suited-up, scurrying staff are always on hand to proudly talk you through the station's wine list – its syrup-gold viognier could well pip the beetroot-chocolate mud cake for dessert.
W: Don't be deceived. The monolithic rammed-earth wall contouring the Red Hill ridgeline opens to sweeping views of vine-lined hills, valleys and distant waters of Western Port uniting cellar door, terrace and restaurant. Inside, concrete, limestone, timber and glass keep the fitout clean and modern. Why spoil that view? Head for the black mesh designer chairs and widely spaced tables to best enjoy chef Stuart Deller's cleverly conceived, beautifully balanced combinations of flavour and texture. Two- and three-course menus rely on a roll call of the region's finest produce including ingredients plucked from the estate's orchard, kitchen garden and beehives. Expect house-churned butter and wine yeast-fermented bread; poached calamari on black risotto; heirloom tomatoes and house-made ricotta doused last-minute in subtly smoked tomato consomme; crisp-skinned dory, confit lemon and peas in salsa verde; and juicy Flinders Island lamb on white bean and roast garlic puree. Outstanding estate drops, a commendable cella
W: Since arriving in 2015, Matt Stone and Jo Barrett have transformed this Yarra Valley restaurant with their determination to put terroir on the plate. It's a blueprint every winery restaurant in the country could do worse than follow. Insert an architecturally striking glass-walled dining room gazing over a postcard-pretty tableau, plant an organic vegetable garden, and round up anything you don't grow from neighbouring producers. Of course, it helps to have two uncommonly creative and driven chefs in the kitchen.
W: It's back to the future at this Healesville giant of the hospitality and wine scene. What was once Innocent Bystander and Giant Steps has split. Bystander is now slinging its pizzas next door under new owners, while Phil Sexton's premium brand has stepped up. Steampunk chandeliers spread over booths in olive and mustard tones. What's hitting tables – a mix of South-East Asian dishes, steaks, charcuterie and harissa-slathered chickens – is by Steps/Bystander's original chef Jarrod Hudson. Don't drive. Do let Suzanne Tyzack lead you through a Cures and Causes vermouth tasting or wine journey, all with your eyes fixed on barrels and wine vats next door.
W: When high-roller friends come to town, send them this way for spots to park the chopper, sophisticated architecture, solicitous service – and a cellar of thousand-dollar-plus iconic imported wines to complement those from Levantine Hill's sweep of surrounding vineyards. Five- or eight-course set menus served on sculptural white crockery might be preceded by a miniature cone of silky foie gras pâté before proceeding to a smoke-filled cloche of butter-soft salmon with pearls of roe and curls of cucumber, then a dainty seasonal salad with goat's curd, hazelnuts, flowers and leaves from the estate's garden.
W: The thing about always being ahead of the game is that sometimes it takes a while for people to see what you were doing. In 2016, all anyone wanted to do was drink amazing whisky while looking at the dumpster fire that was the year in review, but Whisky and Alement have been paving Melbourne nights with precious amber distills since 2010.
W: If you dig whisky and an ever-evolving roster of craft beers on tap, then Boilermaker House should rate highly on your lips. In fact, it’s the home to one of the largest collections of whisky in Melbourne, boasting a library of 700 offerings. From the Lonsdale St entrance, Boilermaker House is completely unassuming- a signature mark of the Speakeasy Group who also have EDV in their roster. Through the gigantic doors, the bar opens up to a brash explosion of bodies, blues and brews.
W: Finally, here is a luxury hotel and restaurant on a working winery where you can watch toil on a tractor from the comfort of an infinity pool (if you drop $650 to stay). For the rest of us, there's Rare Hare, a casual drop-in eatery, food store and and wine tasting barn offering smoked artichokes with burrata and venison carpaccio with views of the vines. Or, step up another level for Doot Doot Doot, the black-boothed fine diner doing four- or eight-course adventures beneath a 10,000 globe installation resembling wine mid-ferment.
W: One of the best things about Arlechin isn’t just that it’s open until three, it’s that the kitchen is along for the ride. You could be eating a tousle of spaghetti laced in a bright tomato sauce studded with garlic and capers or a Bolognese jaffle that could conjure up the Aussie-Italian upbringing you never had. Banging food, cocktails and wine until 3am, it’s a sure fire way to be a killer late night venue.
W: Welcome to the Congress conundrum. It pitches itself as a wine bar and follows through with a ripe little globe-trotting list with a specialised section of orange picks to remind you it’s Collingwood. However the snack game is so strong here that it's worth a trip just for the pig's head sanga alone.
W: You could describe Marion as a dabbler in the art of bistronomy, which is another way of saying it has excellent food and wine values while trying really hard not to show how hard it’s trying. It has some natural advantages over any competitors. For one thing, sharing the vast cellar of Cutler & Co means Marion can lay claim to being the best-stocked wine bar in the 'hood, but in reality there’s no need to venture beyond the shorter list purpose-built for Marion, stuffed with all kinds of vinous excitement by the glass.
W: Heartbreaker isn’t the kind of place you go to when you’ve got an early morning the next day. You will get swept up in the rock ‘n’ roll nature, flowing shots, beer chasers and party-hard spirit the venue has cultivated over the last few years. Throw in that late-night New York style slice, and you’re in for some trouble with a whole lot of staying power.
W: Cherry Bar doesn’t need to be convinced of its status as a legend. This is a venue that refers to itself as “pretty much the best rock’n’roll bar in the world”; a venue that an infatuated Noel Gallagher once offered to buy; that turned away Lady Gaga’s request for an after party because a local band had already been booked. In its 17 years, this rough-and-ready dive bar has shaped Melbourne’s live music culture, pushed for positive change in the music industry and pulled more pints for off-duty rock stars than we could drink in a lifetime.
W: Backing onto a cobbled laneway, with a mamma’s-kitchen Italian menu written in hand on the green tiled walls, this city wine bar could easily be an enoteca in the shadow of the Colosseum. Melbourne is good with wine bars like that: authentic, delicious, no-frills. Fun fact: the site for Kirk’s was once home to Kirk’s Bazaar, a horse-trading pavilion built in 1840, only now they trade in semillion not stallions.
W: If you like cocktails, whisky, blues, good service and eating Reuben sandwiches at 2am, Beneath Driver Lane is your basement of dreams. Occupying an old bank vault in the CBD, this bar has a Harry Potter feeling that’s rare in a city whose subterranean spaces are sorely underused. It’s a vision of rustic Victorian style: the brick arched booths, the walls cluttered with black and white photos, and the warm light from candles.
W: How much would you pay to imbibe your next frothy from a Viking drinking horn? At Mjolner, a Norse mythology-themed bar under Hardware Lane, a few extra dollars gets you upgraded from lowly glassware to a forearm-sized vessel, embellished with gold and set majestically upright on a custom-made frame. Sure, wrenching out the hefty thing every time you want a swig of orange blossom mead may be a more trouble than it’s worth, and your table neighbours will be on high eye-gouge alert, but think of the fun!
W: To get better acquainted with tequila’s smoky, sultry cousin, mezcal, head to the Parliament end of Little Bourke Street and follow the bordello-esque red glow at the base of the Crossley Hotel. Here you’ll find Bodega Underground, a gritty-cool basement bar that riffs of the spirits and street foods of Mexico.
