Christmas Cheer

December 1998

Melbourne is brim full of bars where you can celebrate Christmas. A few of them are listed here and lots more can be found in Mietta's Eating & Drinking in Melbourne.

Bar Figo's opening was previewed in the guide and it has now opened in the basement of 313 Flinders Lane. Set up as a restaurant at lunch when chef Toli Karathanasis serves a good Italian style menu, at night the tables and chairs get stacked away, the music goes up and the office workers enjoy their beer standing at the curved golden bar which is lit from underneath, sometimes displaying bar snacks.

You really need to know where to find Misty at 3-5 Hosier Lane. There is no sign outside and the owners, a team of artists, are doing no advertising. The name is cut into a blue frame inside the door with the Braille translation below. It is this Braille form only which is on business cards, the name Misty appears nowhere else. But look out for City Lights 2000, a public art space with paintings outside on the warehouse walls opposite. The inaugural exhibition is changing next week with a street party.

The Lounge, upstairs at 243 Swanston St has long been a site for exhibitions, readings, music and playing pool. You can share a jug of beer outside on the verandah overlooking the trams and shoppers below.Or slip behind the opaque front of Vis downstairs and sink into a soft couch with a glass of wine if you want a quieter, cooler scene.

When the sun goes down and the retailers close up shop on Little Collins St, the discreet yellow door is opened at No. 267. Go up the concrete stairs and enter the world of Frank Sinatra and his friend, Tony Star's Kitten Club Bar and Grill. This bar is as cute and fun as the name suggests with a good list of wines and food. You can sit down on soft low poufs with a bottle of champagne or sit up at the tables to eat or perch on stools at the groovy back lit cocktail bar with its seductive sounding shaken and blended drinks list.

The bar at Becco, the popular restaurant behind Pelligrini's, cnr of Bourke and Crossley Sts., is a handy city meeting place for a drink and to stock up with essential Christmas party provisions from their store next door.

Outside of the city the traditions of the working man's pub are upheld at Labor in Vain, Brunswick St, Fitzroy. Its own special brew of beer served at the old wooden bar, 'antique' beer signs and memorabilia, cosy wood tables and a small pool table combine to give this place a special atmosphere, something between an English local and New York's McSorley's.

In Collingwood, Yelza on Gertrude St, envelopes you in a very particular atmosphere too. Old style flock wallpaper, a fountain, carpet and plush armchairs, take you into another world. But the reality is reasonably priced drinks and a menu of Greek, Italian and French dishes, even good old Steak Diane. Prices range from $6-12.50 for the food served out front, there is a large glassed in garden area at the back which is very popular for the big 30 birthdays.

In St Kilda, the Melbourne Wine Room and Dogs Bar have long attracted locals and people from all over Melbourne for drinks and food. The renovated Prince of Wales now packs them in, as does the downstairs bar scene at Veludo on Acland St. The latest hot spot in the area is the old style Greyhound Hotel, cnr Carlisle St and Brighton Rd. with drag queen and karaoke shows on Saturday and Sundays.

Foodies in search of a drink this summer could try the Queen Victoria Market on Wednesdays between 6.30-10.30pm till March next year. Since opening at the end of November, the Gaslight Night Market has attracted big numbers to try the food and regional wine stalls, as well as any standard drink served from two outdoor bars set up by the nearby Royal Standard Hotel. There's usually music playing and on December 23, you could also do the family shopping. For that Wednesday, normal market stalls will be open for trading during the day and some of them, such as Chinese vegetable supplier, Tarbert Louey, will be trading till late.