Melbourne Patron

The shops along Domain Road, South Yarra have a reputation for being a bit posh. It is South Yarra, after all, and the majority are cafes and restaurants that take advantage of their location (opposite Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens ) by providing some outdoor seating. Apparently The Real Housewives of Melbourne even frequent one or two venues along the strip. A little further down the road, on the corner of Millswyn Street, Entrec ô te (131-133 Domain Road, South Yarra) is having a party of its own - still refined, but with a little more colour and personality. In operation as a Parisian-style steak bistro since January 2015, the restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week in the former site of the infamous  Lynch's Restaurant . Business partners Jason McLaren Jones and Adam North developed the idea when they bumped into each other in Paris in late 2014. They took a meal together at the institutional  Le Relais de L'Entrec ô te : a no-booki...

When I first arrived in Melbourne five years ago, I became good friends with Meyers Place in the CBD. It housed favourite haunts of mine, Lane's Edge and Waiter's Club , plus the small-but-funky Meyers Place Bar , the Deco-style  Lily Blacks and, at the laneway's end, on Little Collins, the ever-charming Bar Lourinha . Corner of Loop building on Meyers Place Halfway down was a bar I could never quite recall the name of, dark grey and moody-looking, with a few outdoor tables hosting mysterious, straight-faced smokers. After a few nights out in the area, I ventured within its walls, and discovered a cool, dark space with unfailingly grumpy-looking hipster staff, low cushioned seating and sections that could be reconfigured via roller curtains attached to the ceiling. More often than not, a private function was taking place at the back, making use of a small screening room, or beats were playing late on Saturdays, with colourful graphics thrown around a large screen. ...

One of my best friends and I had polished off a bottle of champagne (a relatively normal Tuesday for us...) and were in dire need of food. It being mid-January, my local pub was still closed for summer holidays, so we headed down to Victoria Street in Richmond and basically chose the first open restaurant we saw (after one we'd already been to). The lucky winner: Oriental Spirit (54 Victoria Street, Richmond). It had been one of those appalling 35+ degree days, but was starting to cool down, so the front had been opened up, allowing a pleasant airflow and a nice closeness to the passing Vietnamese nannas and friendly local dealers. There was also a non-offensive view of the bank across the road. Score! I was a little tipsy (surprise, surprise), so can't say that I really noted what sort of cuisine Oriental Spirit offered; I just assumed, like many other restaurants along Victoria Street - and especially because of its vague name - that they served pan-Asian cuisine. A b...