Last Sunday on Fathers’ Day I walked to Acland Street, St Kilda. I expected more action early this morning than I have found on other Sunday’s and I was right. The roads were busy and so were the cafes. Breakfast out with Dad? I hit Acland Street from Clyde Street. This is a good…
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O’Connell’s is a classy gastro pub with a friendly vibe. The gastro bit generally means the prices are up. Great food of course but you don’t see yourself getting a bargain. On Monday at O’Connell’s that assumption is not correct. On Monday they have a choice 250gm cut of cape grimm porterhouse and a…
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Bell’s Hotel has had a make-over. It is open, light and roomy. On one hand the real pub feeling that you would find somewhere like The Local in Port Melbourne has gone. On the other it hasn’t a real gastro pub vibe like Lamaro’s in Cecil Street. It seems to have decided to be…
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There are always people around the entrance to The Local Taphouse in Balaclava. One reason is because it is right on a tram stop and another is that the downstairs bar is popular and people sometimes spill out particularly in the summer. Last week on a surprisingly sunny July day I ate in…
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Middle Park – preserved Old Melbourne Tourists to Melbourne often see this city as the CBD and Lygon Street in Carlton. That was the way I saw Melbourne when I first visited here. I came a couple of times a year re-newed my friendships with these spots and of course the cake shops in…
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During the wine and food festival the Express Lunch promotion was a good way to check out a top restaurant at a reasonable price. $40 with a glass of Australian wine. Our first booking was at Bristo Guillaume in the Crown Entertainment Complex, with its wonderful location on Southbank and its striking entrance way….
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The Local in Bay Street Port Melbourne has become a fairly regular haunt, especially for a quick meal after work. I wrote about my first visit here. It has such a nice ‘pubby’ atmosphere – a sort of reminder of what pubs used to be. There is nothing of the Gastro Pub here –…
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The Albion Hotel is alive and well. I visited this Port Melbourne Pub first in January 2010. (See here) To find that some good things stay the same is very comforting. The decor is the same, the fires still burn and the people are still there. These days I often head off to…
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The Palmerston Hotel has been around forever or so it seems. I have driven past it countless times. It is something to look at when you are jammed in a traffic snarl on Kings Way. On warm summer days you can see patrons outside. While I am imprisoned in my car I haven’t warmed…
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The Local Pub is a sports pub and on the evening we were there they had the Rugby world cup on every screen. There are a lot of screens. This is a plus if you are there to watch sport. We had a smallish screen on the wall beside our table. The Rugby…
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