Melbourne Laneways
Lose Yourself in Melbourne’s Laneways
You’ve surely heard the hype about Melbourne’s laneways - the city has hundreds of narrow passageways that have become home to an entire movement of fabulous little cafes, creative restaurants, uber-cool bars and chic boutiques. Add to this mix a couple of gorgeously restored shopping arcades, and you have an array of delightful adventures to look forward to. So here’s our In-The-Know guide to losing yourself in Melbourne’s laneways and arcades…
Degraves St
One of the original and most popular laneways, Degraves St is the perfect spot to start your adventure. So take a seat and settle in for some good coffee, a hearty breakfast and some serious people watching. Degraves Espresso is the favourite place on this strip, but there are plenty of other good neighbouring cafes too. Even after a filling breakfast, you’ll need to be strong willed to resist a cupcake from Little Cupcakes – the shop that kicked off the cupcake craze in Melbourne.
Centre Place
Hop across Flinders Lane from Degraves St to Centre Place. With graffiti-covered walls, it has a distinctly grungy feel that seems out of sync with the suited city workers who swarm in at lunchtime looking for some of the best cheap eats in town. If you can, bag a table at Aix Creperie, a tiny hole-in-the-wall eatery with an extensive menu of sweet and savoury crepes and lovely warm service. Other popular spots for a quick snack are easily identified by the crowds jostling at their counters, like the $5 baquette shop or The Soup Place where the rows of enticing soup urns are a welcome site on chilly days.
The Historic Arcades
Across Collins Street is The Block Arcade, a classic arcade from Melbourne’s marvelous past with high ceilings and a mosaic floor. To really step back in time, stop in at the Hopetoun Tea Rooms. For over 120 years, they have been serving high tea, and the old world charm has not faded. The arcade leads into Block Place, a small alley that, like Centre Place, is most popular at lunchtime. If you’re craving a simple but hearty Aussie snack, Dinkums Pies are renowned for serving some of the best pies around, or drop into one of the cool little cafes like Brown Sugar. On the other side of Little Collins St is the The Royal Arcade. This expansive arcade filled with natural light streaming through the opaque roof is a place of windows – whether it’s sitting in the window of Caffe e Torta watching the world pass by, or watching the chocolatiers at work at Koko Black. After The Royal Arcade, you’ll emerge onto Bourke St Mall, from where the charms of Little Bourke St are just one short block away.
Off Little Bourke St
The stretch of Little Bourke St between Elizabeth St and Hardware Lane is quickly becoming the new ‘go to’ place for obscure laneway haunts. Daytime gems like Captains of Industry and Little Mule Co (both in Somerset Place) and Manchester Press (Rankin Lane) have quietly opened in converted warehouse spaces, and all serve great coffee and good simple lunches. There is also amazing coffee at Brother Baba Budan on Little Bourke St while +39 has been voted The Age’s pizzeria of the year for the past 2 years. At night there’s a faint glow down Warburton Lane from Portello Rosso (a fantastic tapas joint) and upstairs from that, a charming bar called Murmur.
Hardware Lane
A little slice of the continent in downtown Melbourne, Hardware Lane really comes alive at dinner time. The cobblestone street, live jazz performers and Italian waiters give it a romantic European vibe. The stretch between Little Bourke and Lonsdale St is the most popular for dinner, where recommended restaurants include The Mill or Il Nostro Postro. After dinner, Campari House with its four levels of bars is an apt place to stop for a post dinner beverage.
Vertical Laneways
Reinventing underutilized space in the city has become a Melbourne past-time. First, it was Melbourne’s neglected laneways that were given an injection of new life and are now home to an eclectic bohemian assortment of boutiques, restaurants and bars. Next on the list is some of the city’s multi-storey buildings. Swanston St’s gorgeous Curtin House building is at the forefront of this ‘vertical laneway’ craze… as you climb each flight of stairs you discover one hidden gem after another, beginning with popular bar Cookie, the more intimate Choo Choo’s and The Toff in Town cabaret room, Metropolis Books and more… finally at the top you’ll find Rooftop Bar and even a rooftop cinema.
Chinatown Laneways
As the night progresses, head towards Chinatown and into the direction of the top end of town. Just after Swanston St there’s a whole range of small lanes running off Little Bourke St. Most are home to cheap & cheerful Asian eateries where the décor may be basic and the service brisk, but the food will never disappoint. Tattersalls Lane is perhaps the best known with the standout being Camy Shanghai Dumpling, where plate loads of really good dumplings can be had for a song! A little further up the lane is a very unique, very Melbourne bar… Section 8 Container Bar. What started as a temporary bar in a disused carpark has become so popular it’s now a permanent Melbourne fixture. Sit yourself on one of the packing pallets, warm up under the gas heaters and sip on a Melbourne Bitter with the locals. If food is still on your mind, a few laneways along is Supper Inn, an iconic part of Melbourne’s eating scene for decades now - it serves very good Cantonese food and best of all it’s open till 2am.
The Croft Institute
Again off Little Bourke St, with some persistence and even a little bravery, venture into the dimly lit Croft Alley. Pass the dumpsters, turn left, turn right, keep going and right at the end of this grungy alley you’ll glimpse the lights of the Croft Institute – a bar that epitomises obscure. Fit out like a science laboratory, this weird and wonderful bar will delight you with all sorts of twists and turns.
Meyers Place
And so your laneway adventure ends in one of the laneways where the fad actually began. Meyers Place Bar was created in the early 90’s by a group of architects who wanted a bar in their hometown where conversation was more important than loud music and the drinks list was anything but boring. Meyers Place Bar still stands today and after all these years still delivers on the ethos which it was created on. Just across the alley is Loop (with a very arty vibe) and a few doors up is Lily Blacks, a swish cocktail style bar. If you need some late night sustenance, slink up the narrow staircase next to Meyers Place Bar where the Waiters Restaurant will be waiting for you. Around for more years than anyone cares to remember, it’s name came about because it was the meeting point for the city’s waiters after they had finished their busy night shifts. The décor is almost the same today as it was back then – bare and basic – but the reasonably priced, hearty Italian food will be just what you need at this time of night.
And then…
Still got some energy and feel like ‘just one more’? There are plenty of other late night laneway haunts to keep you warm… try the likes of Gin Palace, New Gold Mountain or Manchuria… all may be hard to find but the effort will be rewarded when you sink into a comfortable armchair and sip on your next cocktail. And if on your tour you stumble across something we haven’t listed, it’s quite possibly because it wasn’t there when we wrote this article… such is the way of life in a city that never stops creating. But be sure to come back and tell us about it! So in the words of Mark Twain; “… Explore. Dream. Discover.”
