bars, clubs and pubs

HOT: The Kelvin Club, Melbourne Place, Melbourne

August 7, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

I’ve never understood the need for men to have spaces like private clubs or sheds. Women don’t seem to require those same physical boundaries and RM has not been able to explain why men need it to my satisfaction. The Kelvin Club opened is a private members club for men and women, but the decor [...]

NOT: Seamstress, 113 Lonsdale St, Melbourne

August 5, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Seamstress describes itself as ‘a contemporary, mid-price Cantonese eatery boasting two premier cocktail bars.’ I can’t vouch for the two cocktail bars (but the top bar was beautifully decorated with a rack of chinoiserie clothing running along the ceiling over the bar), but I can assure you that the restaurant was a NOT. Firstly, it [...]

HOT: The Emerald Peacock, 233 Lonsdale St, Melbourne

August 5, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

Leave the city for two years and dingy Lonsdale Street seems to have been refurbed into the street where people go out to the hip new places. In true Melbourne style, the door to The Emerald Peacock was unmarked. However, the entrance was still noticeable from the street due to the ornate fireplace and eye-catching [...]

HOT: Taxi Dining Room, L1 Transport Hotel, Federation Square, Melbourne

July 27, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

Continuing my support for Put Victoria On Your Table, I booked a Winter Express lunch at usually super-expensive Taxi Dining Room for $35 a head (their 2 course lunch menu is normally $85). Be warned that the Winter Express menu = the no choice menu. Fortunately, both the main course and dessert sounded much more [...]

HOT: Bingo!, Madame Brussels, Lvl 3, 59-63 Bourke St, Melbourne

July 21, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

The sartorial choices heading up to Madame Brussels were pretty eclectic, from business suits to jeans-clad students to two guys in long Matrix-style gangster coats and pork pie hats. Ha! No one else thought to turn up to Bingo Night in full retro-housewife mode: a 50s-style full-skirted dress, a little collared jacket with bracelet sleeves [...]

HOT: Anada, 197 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

July 13, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

If you have a Monday birthday there aren’t too many options for a birthday meal, so I was delighted when Tranzie suggested that they treat me to dinner at the Spanish restaurant Anada, one of those funky Gertrude Street places that I just never got around to trying before. The chef has previously worked at [...]

HOT: Alice in Wonderland, Cafe Vue, Little Collins St, Melbourne

July 10, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

As I mentioned before, my birthday treat from my parents was dinner and drinks at Cafe Vue. It wasn’t as busy on Friday night as I was expecting, so we had our pick of the outdoor tables (with overhead heaters). For the next three hours, we tripped through Alice in Wonderland with drinks in hand, [...]

NOT: Gigibaba, 102 Smith St, Collingwood

July 9, 2009 ⋅ One comment

Today I welcome my first ever guest blogger, Tranzie. The binary rating system is catching on! Here’s her potentially controversial NOT for Gigibaba: hey, we tried gigibaba last night and the food was so delicious, the atmosphere was great and they had a great wine list (where you could buy your wine in odd portions, [...]

HOT: The Sartorialist at Cutler & Co, 55-57 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

May 3, 2009 ⋅ One comment

The Sartorialist’s blog is so famous that even my mum follows him. So you can imagine the tsunami of anticipation that engulfed Melbourne’s fashionistas when Time Magazine’s top 1oo design influencers announced that he was holding a party to meet his Melbourne readers. Oh dear, what to wear??? Given that most of my wardrobe was [...]

HOT: Cookie, 252 Swanston St, Melbourne

April 5, 2009 ⋅ One comment

While this blog is new, many of the entries are of old Melbourne favourites. I’ve been eating and drinking at Cookie ever since it was first launched as Kookoo. Kookoo was threatened with legal action by Koko at Crown, which meant a hasty, and still-evident, paste job on the dining room wall to reinvent itself [...]