Meyers Place

June 1997

To create a place where you want to go yourself is pretty important. Personal need can often be the greatest, if least scientific, reason for starting in business.

Several years ago, some city dwellers wanted to he able to drink in a "soft, comfortable and late" bar. So they set about creating their own and that's 20 Meyers Place Bar.

The group included young architects who wanted to open a bar which was not "shiny, hard and loud". But where to do it and how to afford it?

When there are six of you all with architecture degrees (the firm is Six Degrees) and there are six more concerned drinkers/investors living nearby and you manage to design, fit out and begin operations for less than $100,000, you're in business.

First, they combed the city for the place, dividing the city grid six ways and exploring. The group found a vacant hairdresser shop down a lane under the Italian Waiters Club.

There they designed a hole-in-the-wall European-style bar, with no signs in keeping with the late-night Italian food establishment upstairs.

And once they were in business, no nonsense, from 4pm to 4am, four days a week, well other little bars in other funny places started to open.

20 Meyers Place opened in October 1994. Early the following year Sadies opened in Corrs Lane, then Rue Bebelons in Little Lonsdale St.

Some interesting transformations of venues happened with the Middle Eastern belly-dancing restaurant Sahara in Swanston St becoming a whimsical student bar (skateboards as art stuck on the wall); and a prime Bourke St space, previously a middle-of-the-road eatery but unlet for a long time, became Spleen (does good coffee and alcohol make you ill-tempered?).

As karaoke clients deserted to the Casino it gave Tim Stammers (formerly The Lounge, Sadies) the opportunity to open the International Bar in Market Lane mid-1996. Others to move into the inner city are David Dann (also partner in The Night Cat with Henry Maas) who opened Up Top in Bulleens Lane; and building on the strong custom of Cafe Segovia in Block Place, Francesco Valles' Hairy Canary in Little Collins St.

The Canary took flight quickly, as did its eccentric sign which now gets taken inside on closing.

New entries this year are Rebelos in Russell St and Bar Bados in Flinders Lane.

None of these bars depends on disco music, food or live entertainment (though the last two can often be found) to bring in the punters.

Some are larger, louder and have a younger crowd than 20 Meyers Place. But all share a human scale, a warm, no-gimmicks atmosphere, no cover charge, are open late and keep the drinks reasonably priced.

20 Meyers Place is now open five nights (closed Sunday and Monday). There are no signs. Between 4am and 4pm it disappears off the street face. A roller door bearing those words is all that hints of what the night will bring.

Inside little has changed from its original set-up. The old materials these six architects sourced have lasted the test of time and trendy young clients.

The timber panelled wall is composed of cupboard doors from a Department of Education office building. Two of these doors fold down during quieter times to form tables, the hinges of which are old train armrests from VicRail's Jolimont maintenance buildings.

The cupboard above the bar also came from this building, since demolished. The timber panelling under the concrete bar was once the stage front of the Melbourne Town Hall. Crimson shag pile carpet adorns one wall and on another a recessed square forms a poster-style art wall, which is a free-for-all exhibition space.

Patrons of this bar admire most its integrity, its uncompromising style and its refusal to be complicated. It remains the place where its creators want to drink.

As more of these wonderful hideaways emerge in the city, there's no doubt this is the hope of the future. Keep it small, discreet and human in scale and provide a real alternative to Casino City.

Places such as 20 Meyers Place have encouraged city dwellers to use their city and city workers to stay back after work.

See also Craig Allchin (of Meyers Place) on setting up a funky Melbourne bar.