Melbourne’s CBD has three fresh bar openings: a saké-focused venue, a botanical cocktail bar, and an Italian wine-and-pasta spot.
We might be drinking less booze overall, but in Melbourne we’re drinking extremely well.. Here are three excellent CBD openings for saké, Negronis and ever-changing cocktails.. Bar Kaeru Bar Kaeru is a new La Trobe Street bar built around a simple idea: given the right entry point, people will fall in love with saké.. While saké has been steadily gaining traction locally through festivals, growing import lists and a broader curiosity around Japanese drinking and
dining culture, the team behind Bar Kaeru saw a gap – not in availability, but in approach.. “People are starting to learn about saké, but what’s missing is a space where we can explain it – where people can actually understand it, not just drink it,” says owner Sean Then, who brings the same innovative approach to coffee-based drinks at Cafe Tomi in North Melbourne.. The room is anchored by a horseshoe bar, designed to
coax guests into conversation, where staff guide them through a list that spans classic producers, modern brewers and seasonal releases.. The approach is flexible: instead of fixed pairings, the team encourages exploration, offering multiple saké options for each dish and inviting you to compare.. Keep an eye out for names like Abe Sake – a sixth-generation Niigata brewery known for its bright, acid-driven style – and Saga Prefecture’s experimental Koueigiku, whose labels change with each
seasonal brew.. Bar Ferdinand Above 7 Alfred, the steak frites restaurant by Hunter St Hospitality (Rockpool, Spice Temple) in the city’s east end, is Bar Ferdinand – the group’s new botanical-themed cocktail bar.. Under bar manager Greg Thompson (Apollo Inn, Gimlet, Dinner by Heston) and group beverage director Ali Toghani, Bar Ferdinand is serving forward-thinking drinks inspired by flora found in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens.. Cocktails are conceived and named around eight core themes; the
drinks’ names stay the same, while the cocktails themselves keep evolving.. For now, the Eucalypt features calvados, nashi pear wine and eucalypt soda; the Herb is made with fig leaf gin, macadamia orgeat, sage and lemon; and the Fern has cognac, kaolin clay vodka, puer tea and a petrichor mist.. Rounding out the menu is a house Martini and house Japanese Slipper, both reinterpreted with botanicals.. The Slipper, made with yuzu and house melon, is
a nod to former tenant Mietta’s Restaurant and Bar, where the drink was created in the 1980s.. The Florence In 2012, Matteo Bruno opened The Meatball & Wine Bar on Flinders Lane.. “I said to the landlord a long time ago, if upstairs becomes available, let me know,” he told us recently.. In 2025, it finally did.. Now, he’s reworked the former office space into Italian wine and cocktail bar The Florence.. The 250-bottle wine
list prioritises Tuscan drops alongside Australian expressions made with Italian varietals.. And the cocktail list nods to its namesake city with five changing Negronis (a drink thought to have originated in Florence in 1919), including a piccolo version.. Plus, there’s a blood orange and vermouth-spiked Spicy Margarita and a Pepperoncini Martini, a spin on the Dirty Martini that uses pepperoncini brine in place of olive brine.. The venue trades until 1am, with the kitchen running
the full stretch.. So you can get ricotta gnocchi with gorgonzola, sage and pecorino, slow-braised beef croquettes, spanner crab blinis, and a handheld take on vitello tonnato well into the evening.. Additional reporting by Quincy Malesovas, Sebastian Pasinetti and Scott Renton.
Melbourne CBD bars, saké bar, botanical cocktail bar, Negroni cocktails, late-night pasta, Italian wine bar