Not all Melbourne hangouts feel like they’re built for all Melbourne people so it’s exciting to come upon a place that’s as democratic as Flinders Street Station, which Arbory happens to abut. This 100-metre long dining and drinking terrace runs between platform 10 and the riverbank. It’s completely outdoors, though well sheltered by umbrellas and cosied by heaters. I’ve been there on a bitterly cold, sideways rainy night and even shrugged my coat off to eat my burger.
Uncle is a new-school Vietnamese restaurant that opened with a queue at the door a month ago and hasn’t drawn breath since. It’s a cool, fun place with tasty eats and great drinks, and it’s easy to see why there’s an hour’s wait for dinner (reservations are available for groups), especially when you consider Carlisle Street is amazing for bagels and sorted for coffee but wouldn’t know pho if it fell into a large lake of it.
I’m all for the ‘I always dreamt of opening a cafe’ passion project but it’s a pleasurable relief to walk into a place that’s professional and poised from day one. That’s the water-glass-half-full vibe at Hannah, a new hangout from Jason Bates, the guy who ran Middle Park’s Mart 130 and St Kilda’s Grocery Bar in its grousest days. The corner cafe is at the base of an apartment development near Carlisle Street – this notch on the latte belt is well supplied but there’s always room for one more cafe if it is really, really good. The corner premises is spacious; pot plants, stucco, watchful elephant figurines and music on vinyl add texture to a clean fit-out. A window bench has delightful views of St Kilda cop shop.
I reckon most people that eat on Victoria Street stick to a favourite Vietnamese restaurant so long as the rice paper rolls are taut and fresh, the broth is clear and wholesome and the noodles are tossed with gay abandon. It’s hard to see the point of tilling fresh soil when the old paddock is still producing, especially when new possibilities seem to differ little from the tried and trusty. But I love taking hits for the team so I usually steer myself to unfamiliar restaurants.
When Pinocchio opened in South Yarra in 1971, pizza meant doona-like dough bases piled with industrial ham and elastic cheese. Gourmet offerings stretched to pineapple and anchovies. The South Yarra institution has moved with the thin-crust roasted-veg fresh-and-herby times and, since August, it’s been joined by an impressive bayside sibling which recalls Crown’s sleek, upscale Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons more than it does the pizza joints of yore.