Apartment Alkira – Boutique Melbourne Short Stay Accommodation

There was a time when the only drink you’d get in Melbourne’s CBD came with sticky carpet and a layer of grime on the bartop.  Not so anymore.  The revolution is well and truly here.  These days, Melbourne is spoilt for choice if you want a great selection of specialty wines, beers or cocktails, and [...]

This teensy city bolthole makes up for its size with ample quantities of style and a generous dose of ‘hip’.  About as big as a large apartment, Von Haus is the perfect spot for teleporting yourself to a hidden European backstreet and bantering away the afternoon.  Situated in the understated cool of Crossley Street, the [...]

525 Little Lonsdale St Melbourne Victoria, Australia This fancy new “Boutique Beer Bar” is a few notches up from your average “Belgian beer garden”. Showcasing the latest in ‘beer technology’ (yes, there is such a thing)  the very slick ‘beervaults’ house every hue in the amber liquid spectrum. Their job is to prevent the air [...]

Poor old St Jude – patron saint of all things ‘lost causey’ – has a lot on his plate.  Failed romances, thwarted get-rich-quick schemes, lost teddy bears – it all seems to come his way.  Lucky he has somewhere nice to hang out when in Melbourne. St Jude’s Cellars in Brunswick St, Fitzroy, is the [...]

300 Smith Street Collingwood Now we at Apartment Alkira don’t approve of dead animal heads (or other body parts) nailed to walls, but we do rather like the rest of the aesthetic at this cool Collingwood cafe/bar.  Cavallero is a large warehouse-space designed cleverly to feel buzzy and happening rather than cold and cavernous – [...]

Melbourne has gone loco for a newish little cantina down Collins Street way.  Goodness knows what those who thought they were buying into the “Paris end of Collins St” think about it all. Geography aside, Mamasita is causing quite a stir.  Located where the once groovy “Recorded Music Salon” kicked back (see 2009 review), the [...]

Moody and sultry as many sub-terrestrial venues are, Maha is a seductive space hidden in the basement of a Bond Street building.  With very little in the way of neighbors to draw the crowds, this secret treasure is surprisingly busy.  Don’t Melbournians just love a hidden treasure? The exciting menu – an Australian take on [...]

If you’re heading to the Arts Precinct across Princes Bridge, (National Gallery, Arts Centre, Hamer Hall) you’ll probably need to augment your gallery/music/theatre experience with a glass of bubbles or a bite at one of several eateries in the area. The ‘coolest’ by far is ‘Curve’ tucked away to one side of the Arts Centre [...]

(Ed note: June 2010, sadly this great space has recently been taken over by a very popular, but only moderately good Mexican restaurant.  *Sigh*) Bar/Cafe Upstairs, 11 Collins Street I love a set of stairs.  Oh, not for the workout for the gluts (pleeese!).  But for the fabulous sense of anticipation you feel at the bottom [...]

Level 2 161 Spring Street Thank God for smokers. No, seriously. If it weren’t for smokers and the new(ish) Australian ‘you can’t smoke inside’ laws, we might never have been graced with the stunning rooftop bar we find at Siglo in Spring Street. No longer allowed to smoke indoors, smokers have gone out or up. [...]