Photo: Brett Schewitz
Since the sad demise of St Jerome’s in 2009, Jerome Borazio and friends have had plenty to keep them busy. Between the refurbishment of The Worker’s Club in Fitzroy, and the founding of Ponyfish Island on the Yarra, and 1000 £ Bend in the CBD, and the continuation of the legendary St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, to say nothing of every other bar and café already in operation under the Get Notorious umbrella, it’s a wonder anyone’s had time to look back to the converted loading dock where it all began. But they have, and in a roundabout kind of a way The Resurrection is the result.
It wouldn’t be completely accurate to call The Resurrection the second coming of St Jerome’s. For one thing, it doesn’t look (or smell) anything like it. While St Jerome’s was a reclaimed space in the midst of the urban jungle, its furnishings cobbled together out of odds and ends, The Resurrection sits in the comparatively genteel neighbourhood of East Brunswick, and occupies far less shambolic digs. The converted shopfront, with its walls stripped bare and floor splashed with bright paint, has a large deck with lots of seating which wraps all the way around to the back of the building. A space has been cleared on one wall for exhibiting art, opening week honours having gone to music photographer Kane Hibberd.
The menu has been expanded and improved upon since the St Jerome’s days, but we’re assured that toasties will still be a highlight. Finally, it wouldn’t be a St Jerome’s revival without longnecks, so The Resurrection has that covered with both Coopers and Melbourne Bitter. There’s not a milkcrate in sight, but the retro clutter adorning the bar brings back memories, and the tin-rooved outdoor dunnies are a reassuring sign that things will never get too sophisticated around here. St Jerome’s is dead, long live The Resurrection.