If there’s a seat available at one of the long peach marble bars,take it. Upstairs,watch embers transform pork belly into rosy,crunchy-skinned slabs. Downstairs,preppy bartenders pour vodka martinis with pickled green tomatoes,destined to match with one of Melbourne’s best bar snacks:golden brioche batons under plump squiggles of manchego custard.

You wouldn’t pick it,but the creators of this polished room,the ever-expanding Mulberry Group,also run a regenerative farm growing unconventional produce. The smoky sweetness of blackened friggitello peppers is offset by salty chevrano,the hard Dutch goat’s cheese. Finely diced raw trout is jolted by horseradish and blanketed under cucumber. And that wood-roasted pork? It’s accompanied by an intensely green charred leek and tomatillo broth.

Before relinquishing your bar stool,make sure you order a wedge of glossy honey tart. Its custard filling is so satiny,it’s gravity defying.

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Melbourne CBD

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