The site isn’t exactly new. And the fit-out hasn’t really changed. For years it was home to Kirk’s, the pint-and-a-pie sibling of neighbouring Kirk’s Wine Bar. But over the past few weeks, the European Group (Kirk’s, French Saloon, Kafeneion) has been quietly reworking the space, even incorporating over the next-door tenancy, to turn it into something more ambitious.

Newly open, Le Pub is a contemporary take on the Aussie pub-slash-bottleshop, complete with a serious kitchen, a general licence and capacity for 100 people across the ground floor.

“It was originally an old pub back in the 1800s, called Kirk’s Bazaar hotel,” co-owner Josh Brisbane tells Broadsheet. He’s worked with prolific restaurateur and co-owner Con Christopoulos since the early days of The European, which opened in 1998. “We’ve basically turned the clock back a little bit and returned it to being a pub again.”

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Luke Fraser (who ran French Saloon kitchen during St John London’s recent residency) has crafted a menu that draws on nostalgia. There’s a pie of oxtail, snails and bone marrow, with the bone sticking up through the centre of the crust. And what Fraser describes as a “modern” fish’n’chips made with market fish and kipfler potatoes in cafe de Paris butter. Schnitzel comes with green beans, potato cakes are served with lemon and salted cod on the side. And the dessert offering is ostensibly British, with bread-and-butter pudding, as well as stilton and oatcakes with quince.

The all-day menu includes a few lighter options, with a modest but confident offering. Chief among them: a classic ham and butter baguette made with very good ham, very good butter and very good bread – it’s set to become one of the venue’s sleeper hits.

On the drinks side, the venue functions as a bottle shop first. The wines are retail-priced and drinkable on-site with a $25 corkage fee. There’s no list. “The wall is the list,” says Brisbane. That means approachable easy-drinking bottles, plus a few big hitters, and a rotating cast of in-house collaborations. On the taps, you’ll find nine Australian beers including an exclusive new stout made with Local Brewing Co and Sydney bar She Loves You. The group’s Monopole wine label and Melbourne Gin Company collab gin are also being poured.

Opening hours are currently Tuesday to Saturday, midday until late, with the team hoping to move to seven days as soon as everyone has found their rhythm.

380 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
No phone

Tue to Sat midday–late
@lepubmelbourne