Things to do in Melbourne today

The State Library of Victoria’s physical doors may be shut for the time being, but it doesn’t mean you can’t explore the best parts of this mega library online. Everyone now has access to the library’s massive digital collections, which includes thousands of photographs, personal manuscripts, magazines, journals, newspapers, comics, theatre programs and advertisements – even video archives. You can also access more than 19,000 ebooks, music and a huge range of journals and articles.

ACMI’s regular Melbourne Cinémathèque screenings that were still running at the Capitol Theatre had to be shut down in line with government advice. But the closure wasn’t for long with ACMI launching Virtual Cinémathèque online. The online cinema sessions won’t follow the program for the 2020 Melbourne Cinémathèque season but will still feature double bills that focus on specific actors, directors or themes. The classic and contemporary films showcased are chosen by the Melbourne Cinémathèque as well as ACMI’s Film Department and will feature annotations and introductions wherever possible.

You might not be able to physically visit museums in Melbourne anymore, but as of today, you can visit them virtually. Today Museums Victoria launched Museum at Home; an initiative that allows you to engage and explore Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks and the Immigration Museum online. The online project will allow guests to go behind the scenes, take virtual tours (hosted by hilarious kidult comedy team the Listies), learn about STEM, experience livestreamed virtual events and watch Q and A sessions hosted by experts.

Due to COVID-19, staying in is really having a moment. To help contain the spread of the virus, most of Melbourne’s cultural institutions have now closed, including the National Gallery of Victoria. But thanks to the magic of the internet, we can inform you dear reader that you can still engage with the NGV virtually from the comfort of your home. The NGV announced today that virtual tours, ebooks, online galleries and children’s activities will soon be available online, in addition to the gallery’s already hefty online collection (it features 75,000 works, 90 per cent of which are available online).

Readings bookshops around Melbourne are staying open (for now) and the team is also offering free delivery to those who don’t feel comfortable going out during this time of social distancing. Readings staff will be making deliveries to inner-city suburbs. The area is based on proximity to Readings stores, which include Carlton, Doncaster, Hawthorn, St Kilda and Malvern. All you need to do is call your nearest Readings store and staff will take your order over the phone.

Practising social distancing right now? Luckily for you, Melbourne’s zoos have decided to live stream their animals so you won’t miss out on a second of all that cute creature fun.  Zoos Victoria has set up live streams at some Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo enclosures, including the snow leopard cubs, penguins, lions and giraffes. Fair warning: if you’re supposed to be working, this is highly distracting.  At the time of writing, Melbourne’s three zoos – Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary – are still open.

That's Amore is now delivering beautiful tubs of fresh buffalo ricotta curds, balls of bocconcini, tubs of buffalo mozzarella and flavoured caciotta right to you. You can get those, and other Italian ingredients like fresh pasta, ciabatta, olive oils, ready-to-bake pizzas, lasagnes and other pantry essentials, too. Want a whole porchetta? That's Amore has got you sorted. Ever want to make cannoli in the comfort of your own home? That's Amore has cannoli kits to make your dreams come true. Basically, you can live your best Italian life through this box, without leaving the confines of your home.

The story goes that Galah’s co-owner, Stephan Mauer, is best friends with the go-to pasta supplier for some of Melbourne’s biggest events including the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix and also the MCG. Sadly, those events were cancelled and the MCG pretty much shut down to help stop the spread of coronavirus in Melbourne.  So what does Mauer do to help his friend and all his excess stock? He employs his casual bar staff at Galah to help deliver 1kg boxes of fresh hand-made pasta to the world.

It’s true that kids will watch anything so long as there’s colour and movement, but every parent knows the difference between a show they’d happily let their child watch all day (ah, Bluey! So much warm humour and good parenting!) and one that makes you want to stab your own eyes out with a teething rusk (don't get us started on Thomas the Tank Engine. Just don't). So with that in mind, the parents among the Time Out family did a straw poll and came up with this top ten of the best kids' shows to stream right now.

Like many other Melbourne restaurants, Windsor’s Lover has thought outside the box during this COVID-19 pandemic to keep the venue afloat. While it remains possible to do so, Lover is offering delivery and drive-through options for some of its menu items. There’s croquettes, oysters, pizza pockets and more, but what we’re most excited about is the gnocchi. Lover is offering six different types of gnocchi including a lamb ragu gnocchi, blue cheese gnocchi, pumpkin gnocchi and a “Nonna style” meatball gnocchi. You can order your gnocchi online or over the phone.

Burn City Smokers had to ice 1.2 tonnes of meat due to the cancellation of Meatstock Sydney, Meatstock Melbourne, Whisky Wine Fire, Flavour Fest, Fromage a Trois and a whole bunch of weddings. So what are the team going to do? After the introduction of Barbecue to Your Door to help alleviate the stress of cooking for your family over Christmas, BCS are reintroducing it for those staying at home. You choose your meat, they cook it, they deliver it, you heat it (or freeze it) and eat it.

The Royal Botanic Gardens team this week made the decision to close its Melbourne Gardens and Cranbourne Gardens to reduce the spread of coronavirus. But the good news for us is that they’ve now made it super easy to engage with the gardens online. While we’re all practising physical distancing, the Gardens staff have decided to introduce a virtual garden. The team is developing new ways for us to engage with the gardens, but for now, they will be posting regular updates on all their social channels, including Facebook and Instagram.

When pasta and gnocchi-devoted bar Gnoccheria opened in Coburg last year, people were lining up to purchase its 20 different variations of the famous potato dumpling. Now, in the age of physical distancing, Gnoccheria is offering delivery of its wares to those around Melbourne. You’ll be able to choose from a variety of items – precooked gnocchi packs, fresh pasta, lasagnes, pizza bases, sauces, cheeses, salts, olives, olive oil, anchovies, butter, porcini mushrooms, housemade passata and caperberries.

Have you ever bought a six-pack of beer and thought “this is great, but I wish there was less physical contact involved”? In order to continue trading, Moon Dog has pivoted to a contactless drive-through service (as it's still legal for restaurants and bars to operate takeaway services). The Preston and Abbotsford Moon Dog venues will run a contactless drive-through beer service. You’ll also be able to score pub grub at Moon Dog World’s drive-through, and pizzas at the OG Moon Dog in Abbotsford.

Melbourne's restaurants are a generous and resilient bunch and are offering services to people including home delivery, rescue packs and even preprepared meals that can get you through these tough times. And think of it this way: you'll be rescuing stock from ending up in the bin and ensuring your favourite venue will still be open when we are allowed to shake hands and hug each other again. Here's a list of the initiatives from the venues we are aware of. By no means take this as a definitive list, as everything is moving very quickly right now.

The contemporary Collingwood restaurant Ides has come up with a contemporary solution to a contemporary problem. Sadly, due to its intimate, multi-coursed dining structure that requires many hands to deliver a meal, Ides is temporarily closed. The crew sat around the table on one of their last night and put together a hand-written zine inspired by the underground hand-made punk zines of yesteryear. Inside the Ides zine, you'll find recipes you can replicate at home like stock, sourdough, Chinese bolognese, cocktail recipes and more by every staff member from Ides.

To make self-quarantine just that little bit more tolerable, Disney+ has brought forward the release of Frozen 2 in Australia. It's news that will be music to the ears of small children and grown-up Frozen fanatics everywhere, not to mention parents who have decided to take their kids out of school and are gearing up for weeks of child-induced cabin fever. Expect other production companies to make similar decisions in the days ahead and put their new releases onto streaming services well ahead of schedule.