Overview
If you’ve ever wanted quality restaurant cuisine at 3am because McDonalds and kebabs won’t cut it, your prayers have been answered. With five levels and three outdoor areas, two restaurants, a rooftop bar, a street level food stall, coffee windows and an impressive 42 taps, 127 Brunswick Street combines everything you need into one central Fitzroy location.
Formerly the Old Colonial Inn, The space caters for the early birds with breakfast and the night owls with a 3am licence and full menu on selected nights. Yes, you read that correctly — a full menu until 3am. Developed over three years by Vince Sofo and Paul Adamo (brain children of The Espy Hotel, Ichi Ni and Ichi Ichi Ku), the space was designed with artist and interior designer Christo Gillard.
The only problem will be deciding which space you’d like to occupy. “We hope people will come and find their own place within the building,” says Sofo, who wants the place to become an institution. That might mean meandering from private booths to sunlit courtyards, or grabbing a coffee to enjoy on the run.
One key option if is Ichi Ni Nana Izakaya restaurant, which spans the basement, the pub’s old keg room, the ground floor and the courtyard. It offers dishes with an Australian-Japanese fusion flavour. On the first floor is Village People Hawker Foodhall, a hawker market/beer hall hybrid delivering your fix of Laotian, Cambodian, Indian, Malay, Burmese and Thai.
From the street you can find Ichi Ni Nana Street Food Stall and Coffee Stop Window. The focus is Asian brekkies and lunches for busy Fitzroy folk. Beers, sake and soft drinks also available from the bottle shop.
The Upside Rooftop Bar is bound to be a popular summer drinking hole, with views across the city.
127 Brunswick Street is (surprise) at 127 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. It's open now.