The Hot List is the definitive guide to Melbourne’s most essential food and drink experiences, updated weekly. Learn more.

• Added: Pendant Public Bar, Times New Roman, 81 Bay Wine Bar, Calere
• Most trending restaurant: Marmelo
• Most trending bar: Caretaker's Cottage
• Most trending cafe: Hareruya Pantry

When the rest of the country starts slowing down, that’s usually when Melbourne starts speeding up. Melbourne really hits its stride as the temperature drops, and the abundance of great new openings recently is proof. This week we’re adding a few new favourites to The Hot List, as well as one cafe that hasn’t put a foot wrong since it opened back in 2019.

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They say you only really die the last time someone ever says your name. So maybe The Everleigh will live forever. Because even though we’re still coming to terms with the iconic cocktail bar’s closure – as well as its sibling Bar Margaux’s premature end – we’ll be enjoying those bars’ influence for many years to come.

Take Pendant, which opened last weekend. Its owners, Belinda Linton and Luke Kelly, both worked at The Everleigh for three years – Linton as venue manager and Kelly as bar manager. And you can see that experience – of warm, personable service and effortless excellence – everywhere at Pendant. (And their time at Congress and Black Pearl, and Mr West and Apollo Inn, respectively, definitely helps out too.)

Stop by for an ice-cold Martini, or a cognac-spiked Old Fashioned – or something from the rotation of four signature cocktails. Finish it off with a Guinness and a packet of Samboy chips, and that’s a perfect night.

Times New Roman is a throwback. It’s classic in all the right ways, but it still feels new. It demands to be taken seriously – but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s popular, but it feels like anyone can get into it if they want to.

But that’s enough talk about fonts, let’s talk about Brunswick East’s latest pasta bar.

Times New Roman is the new successor to Good Times, the Fitzroy North spot whose $9 pasta and $9 Negronis are things of Melbourne cheap-eat legend. Times New Roman takes a similar approach. You might be wondering, in these cost-of-living-crisis times, how a new restaurant can get away with pastas starting at $6 and most glasses of wine coming in at under $12. According to the team here, it’s all about volume and repeat custom. Give enough people enough good food at a good price, and they’ll keep coming back. If the crowds rolling in on any given night of the week are anything to go by, they could be on to something here.

Brighton’s always felt a bit all dressed up with nowhere to go. It’s such a beautiful part of town – with the price tags to accompany it – so why has it always felt so sleepy? Especially at night-time? That’s a question that Brighton local Ian Curley, who co-owns CBD classics French Saloon and Kirk’s Wine Bar, never quite had an answer for. So he decided to answer it himself. Emphatically. He’s come up with a two-part solution: fine diner Baix, which is due to open soon; and its neighbour 81 Bay, a casual but up-tempo wine bar. Visit for a menu that straddles the southern French/northern Spanish border – a bit of steak frites here, some Gildas there – and a wine list that plays it classic, with plenty of old-world bottles and varietals. Plus, if you can remember the name, you’ll never forget its address.

Melbourne’s de facto status as the nation’s coffee capital isn’t a given anymore. It’s getting fierce competition from roasters in Sydney and Brisbane. Even Canberra is the home of Ona – Australia’s most envelope-pushing coffee company. So Melbourne’s cafes can’t rest on their laurels – they constantly need to be levelling up. That’s what Calere’s been doing for years. Just a handful of years ago, the teeny Gertrude Street cafe was one of the few places in Collingwood you could reliably find cascara ¬– a tea-like drink made from dried coffee cherry skins. Before Ona opened in Brunswick, Calere and nearby Plug Nickel were two of the only spots using Ona beans, too. Since opening in 2019, Calere has also steadily attracted a following for its exploration of Chinese coffee, which is garnering increasing acclaim in the coffee world. If you go to Calere for a coffee, you won’t just get one of the best brews in Melbourne right now – you’ll also get to see into coffee’s future.

www.broadsheet.com.au/hotlist/melbourne

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