The latest outrageous brewpub by Moon Dog occupies a large swathe of an abandoned suburban shopping centre on Melbourne’s fringe. On the flipside, a young couple has taken over a space no bigger than a child’s bedroom for their first bar. In between, there are friendly bars that already feel like they’ve been there for decades.

Moon Dog Beach Club

Frankston is the latest suburb to feel the splash of a Moon Dog opening, the brewery’s fifth. And boy is it big. Spanning 2000 square metres, the venue transforms a former discount store into a hideaway of palm trees, boardwalks, daybeds and thatched-roof huts that spill over five distinct spaces.

The beach club identity was a no-brainer, apparently.

“Once we knocked down the back wall and the ocean views opened up, its fate was sealed,” says co-owner Karl van Buuren.

Cocktails come by the one-litre bucket; Big Kahuna burgers heave with grilled pineapple, maple bacon and jalapeno; and slushies – choose from limoncello or pina colada – are a bestseller. There are also buckets of prawns with cocktail sauce, fish and chips, and prawn tacos with chipotle mayo.

Located near Frankston’s famed “pub corner”, the unmissable resort-inspired venue for 800 people is proving a hit with younger locals, even more so than the brewer’s other venues.

“It’s something different from the corner pub, and it’s different from smaller bars,” says van Buuren.

490 Nepean Highway, Frankston, moondog.com.au

Tiny Bar

There’s nothing tricky about the name of Tiny. It squeezes 15 people along two walls, has a kitchen pass that doubles as a high-table, and serves a 12-item menu from a studio apartment-sized cooking set-up. It helps that couple Zac Shearer and Jamila Fontana live three minutes’ walk away, allowing mid-service dashes home to get more ice or beer. They’re also growing tomatoes for the menu.

“It’s not for everyone, but we love it,” says Shearer, who’s cooked at The Lincoln and French Saloon, as well as venues in Hobart.

Craving a casual spot for their bar-starved pocket of Brunswick, the couple decided they’d do it themselves, juggling the business with Shearer’s teaching studies, parenting and Fontana’s nine-to-five job.

Tomato tarte tatin on house-made puff is finished with a red-wine burnt caramel, smoked quail egg with potato foam and beluga caviar makes an elegant snack, and abalone is tossed through a bold seaweed butter. Josh Fry, the opening chef for Rocco’s Bologna Discoteca and Poodle, helped write the menu.

Seven cocktails, 10 wines and three no-frills beers (including VB longnecks) get the job done, drinks-wise.

221D Blyth Street, Brunswick East, instagram.com/tinybar_melbourne

Dawn and Mabels

This Acland Street wine bar opened early December, bringing new life to a strip crying out for more options. The look is Art Deco with second-hand lamps and deep-blue walls; a curved timber bar wraps around an open kitchen and a table for 12 sits snugly in a rear nook used for Wednesday wine tastings.

The list of 92 wines roams the world but pings frequently on France and Italy. Tap wine and beer flow particularly freely during happy hour (3-6pm) when house beverages are $8.

A snacky menu includes excellent extra-long lamb cigars with preserved lemon harissa, beetroot carpaccio showered with grated manchego, and a fun preserved seafood plate with pickled herring and smoked trout called “Blame The Fisherman”.

The bar joins nearby Walrus Oyster Bar on Inkerman Street and Chronicles on Fitzroy Street in a circuit of welcoming St Kilda places with a focus on locals, rather than day-trippers and tourists.

83 Acland Street, St Kilda, dawnandmabel.com

Backspace Bar

The crisp shirts of an M.J. Bale shop have been replaced by sharp drinks, including martinis and Sazeracs, at new CBD cocktail bar Backspace. Nestled in a laneway close to Philippe, Gimlet and Lee Ho Fook, the bar was opened in October by Ben Cester and Joseph Kornides, both linked to Whisky Den.

The Melbourne Sazerac, which is lightly infused with coffee, joins an Italiano (Campari, vermouth, chinotto) and fun drinks like the Blue Steel, a rum and pineapple concoction with blue curacao.

The fitout is more classic. A bar seating 10 drinkers has a Tasmanian oak top, while the mirrored backbar with strip lighting glows after dark, its light bouncing off deep-green tiles. Despite the polished drinks and look, Cester is aiming for service that’s closer to a friendly local.

“A few people have walked in and said ‘Oh, this feels like Cheers!’” he says.

There are plans to add food and open the upstairs space − with generous horseshoe booths − as the team find their feet.

27 George Parade, Melbourne, backspacemelb.com.au

with Dani Valent