Dale Campisi - Melbourne Precincts: A Curated Guide to the Citys Best Shops, Eateries, Bars and Other Hangouts

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CONTENTS

Welcome to Melbourne Precincts. Featuring 20 precincts across the city, this book is diverse but it does not seek to be comprehensive its a taster of what our city and suburbs have to offer.

Ive asked a prominent local from each of the precincts to share their daily routines and favourite haunts to reveal something of the multilayered nature of being a Melburnian, so there are plenty more tips inside than the 150 or so destinations Ive recommended.

For each precinct Ive featured local businesses stocking local makers, using local produce, supporting their local community. This local sensibility is a central part of being a Melburnian. Use this book as a way into a place, then make like a Melburnian and go for a stickybeak down laneways and into suburban backstreets, talk to locals and ask their opinions. Melburnians are friendly people, down to earth and warm fiercely proud of their neighbourhoods and the city at large, and keen to share it with others.

Melbourne is best explored using a mix of transport modes. As a city its actually made up of a collection of villages, easily experienced on foot. The citys geography (almost entirely flat) has given rise to an enthusiastic bike culture. There are hundreds of kilometres of dedicated bike paths and on-road lanes, government-sponsored shared bike services, and stylish bike-hire options such as and The Humble Vintage. Theres also a rail network that reaches out into the distant hinterland, and a tram system that snakes its way through the CBD (where trams are free) and across the inner suburbs. Suburbs are centred around train stations, and you can use public transport for as little as $7 a day.

So get out there and explore this town. Youre guaranteed to discover something new, and I reckon youll be back for more.

Dale Campisi

The perfect day out in Melbourne, like any ordinary day out in Melbourne, necessarily involves coffee, sandwiches, beer, a bike ride and maybe a tram trip.

Whenever I arrive back in Melbourne from my country house in rural Tasmania (which isnt nearly as grand as it sounds but is loaded with character) I like to take the train to Flinders Street Station and check out the vitrines in the Campbell Arcade subway before emerging for an amazing baguette at Waffle On at the top of the stairs. Across the road you can visit Clementines (see is a must-do on every city visit; a chocolate frog or two from Haighs, inside the ornate Block Arcade, will give you the energy to carry on right through to Melbourne Central shopping centre.

A cheeky beer will lead me down by the river to Riverland. But for martinis or negronis I head to Vernon Chalkers Bar Ampere (see . The drinks and fit-outs at both are worth writing home about.

For magazines I head to Mag Nation on Elizabeth Street, and for respite to Somerset Place and , makers of fine sandwiches and bespoke shoes.

You could find me anywhere for dinner; there always seems to be a new restaurant opening, so theres always something new to try. But I do love the attitude at , the buzz of Magic Mountain Saloon, the view of the Supreme Court from Movida Aqui, and the faux timber panelling at Waiters Restaurant. Chinatown is always great for dinner too, and for a stroll afterwards neon and lantern lit, bustling with people. Tiramisu is important to me, and the quest continues for the citys best. Im currently loving Ladros on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, as well as Thirty Eight Chairs just off Chapel Street.

I love to bike north up St Kilda Road, through the CBD, past Melbourne University, around the cemetery and on to Brunswick. The path at Park Street cuts across town and joins the Capital City Trail, which meanders along Merri Creek and the Yarra, through Richmond and beyond.

A good friend got me hooked on buying food direct from the farmer, so I go to any of the numerous farmers markets around the city on Saturdays and Sundays. Depending on where I am, I get my staples at Terra Madre (see , and maybe even sneak in an ice-cream at Jocks.

For a day of boutique shopping you cant beat Gertrude Street in Fitzroy and in Prahran. Both are entirely eclectic and also feature some fantastic food and drink. For a day in the sun, Ill head to St Kilda or Sandringham and walk a stretch of the Bayside Coastal Trail.

Even further afield is the cultural melting pot of Dandenong with its abundance of Afghani, Indian and other international foods; and the gardens of the Dandenong Ranges are the stuff Sunday afternoon dreams are made of. The dazzling view of the metropolis from Mt Dandenong after dark is the perfect way to end a day.

Dale Campisi

Melbournes heart is the rabbit warren of lanes and arcades between the iconic Flinders Street Station (the citys main train station) and Melbourne Central shopping centre. Just a block wide between Elizabeth and Swanston streets, you can eat, drink and shop your way for more than a kilometre without stepping onto a main road.

Boutiques and bars, restaurants and cafes all thrive in these tiny backstreets destinations which are just as much about the adventure of finding them as they are about what they sell. So full are the laneways now, that enterprising retailers are going vertical in some of the citys most interesting buildings.

SHOP

EAT AND DRINK

248256 Swanston St, Melbourne

The action at Curtin House extends from the ground all the way up to the famous Rooftop Bar, with its eye on the Melbourne CBD (and outdoor cinema in the summer months). Levels 1 and 2 are devoted to restaurant bar Cookie and live music venue the Toff in Town.

Retail is the order of the day on level 3. Here youll find Metropolis, purveyor of beautiful art and coffee-table books in uniquely spacious surrounds, bless; and Mischa Hollenback and Shauna Tooheys cast-concrete P.A.M. streetwear store, which specialises in distinctive fashion for men and women and has even been collected by Londons Tate Modern. Human Salon unisex hairdresser is also here, as well as dot.comme, which stocks the likes of Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Junya Watanabe. Keep your eye on the buildings directory for pop-ups and seasonal programming, as well as classes from the Wing Chun Kung Fu Academy.

Shop 22, The Block Arcade, 282 Collins St, Melbourne

9663 6441

mrwares.com

Open MonThurs 10am5.30pm, Fri 10am7pm, Sat 10am5pm, Sun 11am5pm

You know the cliche They dont make em like they used to? While that maxim is certainly true of the Block Arcade, its not true of the range of contemporary heirlooms available at Mr Wares. Inside this tiny shop youll find well-crafted homewares and accessories produced by makers dedicated to their craft. Owner John even jokes that seeing the Abbeyhorn shoehorn makers at work is like stepping into a Dickens novel! Youll also find fine French Opinel knives here, British recycled wool rugs and Newgate clocks, Scheisser shirts and soft Wallace & Sewell scarves. Australian makers are well represented too, including Grafa copper, bronze and spotted gum gardening tools, and Melbourne-based Looms eco-friendly towels. These are the kind of things thatll stand the test of time and kids and maybe produce a new cliche: buy better, buy less.