Overview
When Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the latest stage of eased restrictions for metropolitan Melbourne, he gave the city's residents a particularly welcome piece of news, revealing that pubs, bars and restaurants can reopen for dine-in patrons from 11.59pm on Tuesday, October 27. Yes, that means that it's time to get on the beers again — and some of the city's watering holes aren't wasting a second.
If you're eager to have a drink somewhere other than your own house after months of lockdown, you can venture out tonight just before the stroke of midnight, which is when some Melbourne venues are throwing open their doors. Crucially, the next set of eased restrictions also scraps the four reasons that Melburnians previously needed to leave home, so going out for a few beverages is well and truly on the cards. The 25-kilometre rule is still in effect, though, so you'll need to ensure that your pub, bar or restaurant of choice is within that exact distance of your house.
At laneway cocktail bar Gin Palace in Russell Place, you can start sipping martinis as Tuesday night ticks over to Wednesday morning — although, in-line with reopening conditions applicable to all indoor dining at all venues, the bar can welcome only 20 folks at one time. It's doing two 90-minute sessions, with the first running until 1.30am and the second spanning 1.30–3am.
Gin Palace
Over at The Wolf Windsor, it's not only serving up drinks but also treating customers to a midnight parmigiana meal. You'll pay $100, and you'll get to knock back beers for an hour as part of the price. It's only taking bookings for tables of two and four.
At steakhouse Angus & Bon, there'll be a midnight countdown, champagne corks and confetti flying about the place when the clock strikes 12, and even the cutting of a red ribbon. But, in far from astonishing news, the Prahran spot's celebrations are already booked out.
That's the case at Nick & Nora's, too, which is a newcomer to Melbourne this year. The 30s-style cocktail and champagne bar first welcomed in patrons in July, but had to close after three days when new restrictions came into effect. It's holding a now-sold-out ticketed hour-long end-of-lockdown party.
Indeed, given that 20-person caps are in place for all indoor dining (and 50-person caps for outdoors), seats for a late-night tipple tonight might be hard to come by. Unsurprisingly, plenty of people are super keen to say cheers to heading out of the house at the very first moment they can.
Top image: Angus & Bon.