Introducing Tomas Telegramma’s monthly bar review, kicking off with a spot that pours $10 pints of Guinness and boasts fine-tuned cocktails by a couple who honed their craft in top city bars, including The Everleigh.
When the first thing you see while walking into a crowded bar on a Thursday night is one of the coveted booths occupied by a shiny-coated golden retriever – sitting eye-to-eye across its owner, Scooby-Doo style – the good-times dial gets a very quick crank up.
Such is the scene at Pendant, Fitzroy’s new public bar, with a make-yourself-at-home vibe that renders “dog-friendly” an understatement.
But don’t take the freewheeling vibe at face value. Pendant’s superpower is its ability to not take itself too seriously, while simultaneously packing serious cocktail cred. Between them, owners Belinda Linton and Luke Kelly have shaken and stirred at some of our greatest cocktail bars, clocking a combined six years at dearly departed Fitzroy institution the Everleigh, followed by the Black Pearl and Apollo Inn, respectively.
Their debut takes the refinement of where they cut their teeth and loosens it up a little, resulting in a watering hole that can serve as much as a pub as it can a cocktail bar.
Beneath frilly pendant lights, some punters nurse well-poured pints of Guinness, an unheard-of $10 at happy hour (from 4pm to 6pm, Thursday to Monday – yes, even on the weekend). Others are getting across the cocktail list, and almost everyone is fondling a packet of Samboy Atomic Tomato chips – the only snack apart from beer nuts – because there simply isn’t a more nostalgic chip flavour.
Flavour bombs continue in the seasonal signature cocktails, deliciously classic-adjacent and each with a curveball or two, landing in front of you on a Guinness coaster. At a glance, the Backlash & Tonic presents like a negroni: rocks glass, racing red, grapefruit twist. But it’s sans gin, so not as potent, but just as bittersweet, bolstered by wildcard dashes of absinthe, and tonic water, mellowing as the rock of ice melts.
The watering hole can serve as much as a pub as it can a cocktail bar.
Venturing into spicy marg territory is the Spicy Swizzle, a tall, icy, sunset-hued drink ready to swing you into spring. The blanco tequila, house-infused jalapeno triple sec and lingering spice are expected. Less so is the Campari float layered on top, the punch of fresh passionfruit, and a sprig of mint.
It’s a short list – only six or so carefully curated house cocktails – but with Linton or Kelly usually behind the bar, going off-piste is no problem. As my absinthe-averse mate ponders the Backlash, Linton swoops in. “Do you like bitter? Do you like tequila? I’ve got you,” she says, swiftly returning with a Rosita, a tequila-charged riff on the negroni that Kelly loves so much, he named his dog after it.
Classics are done deftly, like a textbook daiquiri with easy-drinking zing. But it’s not all booze: there are nearly as many non-alcoholic cocktails as there are alcoholic ones.
In a storied Brunswick Street site where The Rum Diary Bar poured drinks for a decade, Pendant has plonked as comfortably as you would into a share-house couch. Exposed brick walls flank a room replete with lacy curtains, dark timber panelling, and caramel-coloured booths and banquettes. Dotted around are kitschy trinkets and framed artwork. It has a time-worn charm that prevails even more on quieter nights, when honky-tonk fills the voids in the space, a country and western soundtrack giving big saloon energy.
Service is also a constant, as astute and attentive on a rollicking Thursday when there’s nary a free seat, as a drizzly Monday when the place all but clears out at 9pm. Your glass – and your pup’s water bowl – are kept full by a friendly team.
Melbourne’s most dog-friendly new bar? Easily. But the four-legged hospitality is just the beginning.
Three Brunswick Street bars to try
Lola Belle
Champagne and sugarcane (magicked into rum) are the dynamic duo powering this sun-drenched corner bar, a relatively new addition to the street, by the owner of Union Electric. Find fizz to splash out on, daiquiris multiple ways and shucked-to-order oysters.
233 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, lolabelle.com.au
The Elysian
Nearly a decade in, this remains one of the city’s best-stocked whisky bars, modelled off those in Japan. Hundreds of rare, one-off and hard-to-find bottles line the bolthole’s sprawling back bar, sourced from across the world and making for a tasting adventure.
113 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, theelysianwhiskybar.com.au
Black Pearl
Among Melbourne’s most seminal cocktail bars, the Black Pearl has been Fitzroyalty for more than two decades. The space has been tweaked over the years – including a reno in 2024 – but its heart hasn’t changed. It nails the classics with confidence and consistency.
304 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, blackpearlbar.com.au
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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