Melbourne Patron

Everyone likes cheese, right? OK, except maybe the lactose intolerant, and some people are averse to blue cheese. I love it all. Aside from one bad experience when I ate far too much camembert one Christmas and was subsequently quite ill, I will usually happily eat ALL the cheese, all the time. And yes, I am aware it's not terribly healthy, but pffff, I don't care (much), and yes, I am also aware there is a old wives' tale that cheese gives you crazy dreams... Awesome! Bring it on. Cheese counter at Milk the Cow St Kilda In 2012, St Kilda was all abuzz with the opening of Milk the Cow  (157 Fitzroy St, St Kilda), a 'licenced fromagerie' - which I take to mean 'cheese shop that sells alcohol'... unless you need some kind of special licence to sell cheese? (Apart from unpasteurised cheese - which I'm pretty sure is illegal - I don't think you do.) Intriguing. A bar that sells cheese? Or a cheese shop that lets you drink? Eat/drink in, or out?...

Named for children's author Paul Jennings , this baby in Richmond's on-again off-again hospitality wasteland of Bridge Road is one for the real foodies. It is the solo venture of Head Chef Ryan Flaherty, who has stinted at world-renowned restaurants El Bulli and The Fat Duck , then jointly brought Northcote's The Estelle to foodie fame along with then-business partner, Scott Pickett. Flaherty's passion, creativity and refined skill is evident in his food, and indeed the whole of Mister Jennings (142 Bridge Road, Richmond) is a pretty schmick affair. It's an unassuming shopfront in amongst the retail section of Bridge Road, near the corner of Lennox Street. Mister Jennings had been on my restaurant hit list for so long that by the time I got there, I'd managed to avoid the 'just opened' crowds, and aside from maybe three other tables, we had the place to ourselves. Then again, it's not a massive restaurant, and it was mid-week in late March ...

It's the place that was made infamous by the ' chopsticks incident ' last December, where a young Richmond Tigers AFL player drunkenly threatened to attack a woman dining nearby with his chopsticks. But of course, Mr. Miyagi had already developed a cult following well before that. LOOK OUT... CHOPSTICKS Opening in October 2013 on the ever-so-hip Windsor portion of Chapel Street , and tickling nostalgic fancies with its reference to 1984 classic  The Karate Kid , the restaurant has enjoyed a steady stream of customers since. I remember stopping by with a friend one Thursday night mid last year to enquire about a table, and we were told it would be a two-hour wait. Well! Either this place is really good, I thought, or really good at hype. Always a queue at the front desk I made a calculated plan with friends to score a table there on a Friday night recently. I rocked up nice and early, 6:45pm-ish, and put my name down for a table. They advised the wait would ...

New: Arbory Bar and Eatery, Flinders Walk, Melbourne When I heard Arbory Bar and Eatery had opened along one side of Flinders Street Station, I was surprised that I'd managed to skip any pre-launch hype about it. (a) A new bar, (b) in such a central location, and (c) such a big venue - how had I missed this?! But no matter. I was able to get along and check it out only two weeks after opening. Redeemed. Drinks with a river view So - this place is pretty cool. Arbory (Flinders Walk, Melbourne) runs the length of the old Sandridge platform (up to 150 metres, depending on which source you believe), along the river side of Flinders Street Station. The Sandridge railway line, which went to what is now Port Melbourne, ran for 133 years from 1854. Since it was decommissioned in 1987, its dedicated Flinders platform had been left terribly sad and unused. Flinders Street Station backs onto one length of Arbory The combined powers of  Metro Trains and the HQ Hospita...