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Manchester Lane
Manchester Lane doubles as a semiformal restaurant and has a classy-theatre-restaurant feel about it. While it hosts jazz musicians, an odd assortment of performers have played here, including Russell Crowe and his band the Ordinary Fear of God, and the vaudevillian Soubrettes & Friends Variety a GoGo. Enter from Manchester Lane.
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Melbourne Supper Club
Celebrate in style or just indulge for the sake of it. Leave your fur-lined coat at the door and cosy into the leather cushion of a chesterfield. Browse the legendary wine encyclopaedia and allow yourself to be pampered with couch service. Sommeliers will cater to any liquid desire and light-supper requirement.
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Melbourne Theatre Company
Melbourne's major theatrical company performs at the Victorian Arts Centre. The MTC stages around 15 productions each year, ranging from contemporary and modern (including many new Australian works) to Shakespearean and other classics.
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Meyers Place
A landmark on its namesake street, this is the bar that launched Melbourne's mania for laneway bars. Built nigh on 10 years ago by a group of architects on a tight budget, it makes the most of its limited space. Human in scale and character, it's a hole-in-the-wall, European-style bar with no sign and no shtick - just a straight-up good place to drink.
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Mink
March down the dimly lit concrete stairs to soak in the glory of socialist Russia, while also soaking in the vodka. And with over 80 different distilled delights to choose from, storming the vodka list could prove too much for just one comrade. If you're sharing good company, why not retreat behind the red curtain to your own private booth?
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Misty
Misty is how a 1970s film-set designer might have imagined a millennium bar: requisite white walls, curves and the glow of low-slung coloured lights. Its location does it a lot of favours; Hosier Lane is street-art central, where the walls talk via layers of graffiti and laneway light boxes illuminate local work.
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Mountain Goat Brewery
This local microbrewery's four varieties of bottled beer are available in lots of bars about town, but there's no better place than from the makers themselves to really get your Goat. Open days are Wednesday and Friday, when Cam and Dave answer questions about brewing (and make idle chitchat), cook pizzas and put on a tasting.
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Napier
The Napier is nursing a new generation of pub-goers. Standing on this corner for over a century, it's pulled a lot of pots and seen the changing face of pub patronage. In its history, women rarely walked through the door and Fitzroy had its own beloved footy team (memorabilia of the day attests to that). Worm your way around the central bar to the boisterous back dining room, where forkfuls of well-regarded grub are all that stop the chattering.
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Night Cat
Night Cat is a barn-sized space with a '50s aesthetic, two bars, a stage (for patrons!) and a black-and-white checked dance floor backed by some stellar musicians. Music is generally in the Latin jazz or funk vein. Bands usually start around and play three sets to around . There's a door charge Friday and Saturday.
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Northcote Social Club
This northern light on Melbourne's music horizon hosts an eclectic line-up of musicians in the band room out back. The bar is suitably laidback and you can fill up on some very honest pub tucker, including including veg-and kid-friendly options. There is a huge deck out the back for long beery summer afternoons. Open for dinner every night of the week, plus lunch Thursday to Sunday.
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Old Bar
A lounge atmosphere with nary a whiff of '70s shtick, Old Bar is old-school. Pinnies chink in the walkways and live music plays most nights. This is where DJs go on their nights off to enjoy the best off-the-beaten tracks. It's nothing flash, but that's why it's loved. There's always a need for affordable drinks and an uncontrived ambience.
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Onesixone
If you consider yourself one of the beautiful set, hope that the person behind the peephole does too. Snaffle a couch or a pouf, or have a jiggle on the small dance floor. Chances are it isn't dawn yet - it's just the bright lights emanating from the fish tanks set into the wall. Friday is house till before the recovery takes over, running all the way through to Sunday.
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Phoenix
Offering split-levels of yellow hues, zebra carpet and dimly lit alcoves, Phoenix's retro-safari theme is popular with after-workers on the prowl. Late closing on weekends ensures that most Melburnians have ended up here at some stage. A regularly updated meze- (hors d'oeuvre) style menu is also available.
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Polly
Ornate and regal décor swirl with the character of an eccentric grandmother. Think well-worn antique couches, red-velvet drapes, dramatic Deco statuary, blood-red hues dipped in gold and a cocktail list that'll make you want to lipstick-stain every glass. Polly is affordable and elegant.
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Pony
Bands thump away upstairs (from Wednesday to Saturday), above the low ceilings and smoky din. You can also saddle up for the long haul, with Pony open downstairs until Friday and Saturday night.
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Prince Of Wales
The POW features twilight street seating, a gay pub night with a disco jukebox and dollar pots on a Monday. On Saturday night, upstairs in the Bandroom, One Love straddles the bar-club category. When things heat up, the garage doors open out onto the huge balcony, and there's a little DJ booth in the little ladies' room.
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Rainbow Hotel
There's a mixed bag of free music every night, and has been for over 12 years at this Fitzroy icon. It's a tiny band space, and you often have to look over the bar, but it has a long and loyal following. Monday night, hear Paul Williamson's Hammond Combo - a jazz outfit that's been playing in this spot for over 12 years.
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Red Stitch
This is an independent company of actors staging new international works that are often premieres in Australia. The tiny black-box theatre, opposite the Astor - down the end of the driveway - is a cosy, intimate space.
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Retreat
Punters are demanding more with their pots of beer these days. At the Retreat, you get free live music, the option for honest pub food and that beer garden. Its lawn strewn with raffia mats feels like playtime in your backyard as a kid. All that's missing is the plasticky smell of a new paddle pool.
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Revolver
Upstairs at Revolver is like an enormous lounge room, although it can get rowdy. With 54 hours of nonstop music from Friday to Sunday, it's like a revolving door of DJs, keeping the shag-pile rugs downtrodden. The front room is also used for a variety of film screenings and to host heaps of bands. Out the back there's even a Thai restaurant.
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Robot
If you ever got caught up in Japanese manga mania or you just feel like a sushi handroll washed down with a crisp Asahi or chased by a sake, check out Robot. It has an all-welcome door policy, and attracts groovy kids with great haircuts. Animated movies screen free every Tuesday night.
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Rue Bebelons
For such a small space this bar's reputation is gigantic. It's been around a while (over 10 years), so in bar years it's considered ancient. But it's no relic. Affordable drinks, great coffee and an in-house vinyl collection never go stale. By day, grab yourself a slice of Brazilian bohemia and a salad roll to die for. By night, grab any space you can and contribute to the hubbub.
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Saint
Good-looking young things crowd the two levels of this cocktail and wine bar. Kittens are smitten with the Saint's nouveau-St Kilda fitout, which is sparsely furnished to optimise space. There are a number of little nooks to settle into and a large number of beverages to choose from. Visiting the Saint feels like crashing a wealthy friend-of-a-friend's home: it's comfy and kind of familiar.
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Scubar
As you descend along polished pine panels to the plush warmth below, this underground bunker is almost reminiscent of a Swedish sauna. Submerge yourself in one of two bars, with plenty of comfort by way of flocked wallpaper, polished-wood floors and a pool table. Just don't feed the fish in the wall-length signature tank.
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Section 8
Located in a laneway you say? Yawn. How about: in a laneway, in a car park, and made from shipping containers? Like the city's street art, which is in part so arresting because it appears in unexpected places, Section 8 is a fabulous surprise. It has makeshift seating made from packing crates, funky music and lantern lighting.
