This Preston bowling alley come social club and arcade bar is what nostalgia-filled dreams are made of. The team behind Dexter, Takeaway Pizza, Kenny Lover and Dom’s Social Club has created this vintage venue that holds up to 600 people.
Hidden two flights above Section 8 on Tattersalls Lane, Ferydurke is the more laidback — though still loose — version of its sister venue. The small Melbourne bar offers regular live music and DJ sets, an impressive cocktail list and relaxed party vibes.
For lovers of sound and great cocktails, the most exciting offering of four-storey mega-venue HER (from the guys behind Arbory and Arbory Afloat) is Music Room.
The team behind The Everleigh and Heartbreaker — two drinking haunts that also make our list of the best bars in Melbourne — has also created this chic but still laidback French underground bar and restaurant.
Opened in 2016, this tiny bar hidden one floor above Smith Street (atop Beermash) positioned itself among the city’s cocktail-slinging elite right from the get-go.
When someone like Andrew McConnell opens a wine bar in Melbourne, the expectations are high. When that bar sits beside iconic, two-hat Fitzroy restaurant Cutler & Co., forming some kind of wining and dining super-spot, you can bet they’re even higher.