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Bartender doing a double pour while making drinks.
Photograph: Carmen Zammit

The best cocktail bars in Melbourne

Whether you’re after a sun-drenched rooftop or a dimly lit speakeasy that you need a map to find, these bars mix the city's finest cocktails

Lauren Dinse
Written by
Lauren Dinse
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Melburnians are almost as passionate about their cocktails as they are about their coffee. What's the proper way to make a Martini? Gin or Vodka Gimlet? And should an Aperol Spritz ever be on tap? 

We've sipped our way around this great city to find the bars with the best atmosphere, the most creative bartenders and of course, the best drinks.

If firewater is more your thing, Melbourne's got some of the best whisky bars around. Or if you're keen on a glass of vino, head to Melbourne's best wine bars

Where to drink cocktails in Melbourne

  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Melbourne

There should be another word for what Byrdi is doing. Bar doesn’t quite cut it, despite the fact that dispensing booze is at the core of what it does. It seems more like some kind of lab where you get to play guinea pig to their scientist. There’s been nothing quite like it in Melbourne since Der Raum, which makes sense given that co-owner Luke Whearty cut his cocktail teeth at that highly influential bastion of eccentricity.  The drinks, made and served by a fleet of staff swaddled in crushed linen, are highly original and highly delicious in equal parts. There’s so much exciting technique here, plus a strong sense of seasonality. 

  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Melbourne
  • Recommended

Nestled in an intimate second-storey space on the corner of Russell and Bourke Streets, a cocktail bar is rumoured to be serving in-the-know Melburnians some of the most innovative drinks in the city. Everything at Bouvardia is giving fun chemistry lab vibes, from luminescent orb lamps lining the walls and matching olive-green aprons worn by the bartenders to the breakdown of each drink’s various make-up parameters in the menu. You get the volume, ABV, pH, acid, allergens and profile information for every creation, a refreshingly transparent and fascinating insight into the science behind the art of mixology. 

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  • Bars
  • Fitzroy
  • price 2 of 4

The Black Pearl formula is simple: great cocktails, good chat and a classy, understated atmosphere that welcomes all types. It’s a treasured pocket on Brunswick Street where Melburnians can delight in a taste of some of the most sophisticated drinks born of global and historical cocktail culture, crafted by a bar team unmatched in their knowledge and commitment to perfection. As a result, the team have won reams of various accolades over the years, including Bar Team of the Year at the 2022 Australian Liquor Industry Awards (where owner Tash Conte also won Bar Manager of the Year). The liquor masters here are up for any challenge; dream up an obscure cocktail recipe and their rendition will surely impress.

  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Melbourne
  • Recommended

Wesley Place precinct is a time portal back to ye olden days, with preserved heritage buildings and conservation efforts paying tribute to an important historical moment in time for Melbourne. Nestled humbly within this precinct, behind the Wesley Church and beside a resilient olive tree with origins dating back further than 1875, is the Caretaker’s Cottage. It's now a bustling, albeit pint-sized public bar where you can feel part of Melbourne’s history, and its future, all at the same time. 

 

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  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Collingwood
  • price 2 of 4

Hayden Lambert is a former Time Out Bartender of the Year for his tenure at Bar Americano. He must have gotten used to close quarters at Presgrave Place, because his current digs are almost as compact. His bar is a command centre at the heart of a tiny room, with only a handful of seats facing Lambert as he dispenses drinks that put the art back into artisanal. 

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Melbourne
  • Recommended

This mysterious cocktail bar is the newest sibling to the glowing jewel in Andrew McConnell’s crown Gimlet at Cavendish House, and is nestled deep within a 1920s Neo Renaissance-style building on the corner of Flinders and Hosier Lanes. If you’re familiar with the Trader House team’s mastery of aesthetics, you won’t be fooled by the bar’s unassuming entrance. It's a space that whisks you breathlessly away to the old-world cocktail bars of 1950s Europe. 

 

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  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Fitzroy
  • price 2 of 4

You won’t find better shaken or stirred drinks in Melbourne than at this Gertrude Street speakeasy. This joint celebrates the jazzy golden era of bartending, when four ingredient cocktails were king. The short and classic menu has no vodka, just a handful of Daiquiris and Mary Pickfords – a tarty little number of fresh pineapple juice, light rum and Maraschino.

  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Melbourne
  • price 2 of 4

At any given time someone at Eau de Vie is shaking, freezing or setting drinks on fire, which makes this bar both a thrilling and hazardous place of refreshment. They have a whole room dedicated to whisky, and your Martini is snap chilled with liquid nitrogen. This beautiful Prohibition-style speakeasy is washed with jazz music and daring drinks.

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  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Melbourne
  • price 2 of 4

It’s a vision of rustic Victorian style: the brick arched booths, the walls cluttered with black and white photos, and the warm light from candles and low-hanging lamps feels comfortable and cosy. The folks behind the bar are all practised professionals; personable, knowledgeable and looking sharp in black chef coats. What they’re mixing up is pretty sharp, too. For a bit of wow factor, custom build your Martini in a delicate wine glass chilled with swirling liquid nitrogen.

  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Melbourne

What sets this bar apart isn’t just their warm service that’s as happy to guide a novice as it is to talk serious shop with a firewater devotee; it's the fact that they also go so far as to import hard-to-find gems and sell them both by the shot and by the bottle, and then mix them into some kickass cocktails.

More of Melbourne's best bars

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