Bar Americano, Melbourne

If you’re looking for Bar Americano in Melbourne, don’t give up. You’re in the city of laneways and you’ll (eventually) find it at Presgrave Place as you walk down the hook-shaped alleyway with an unsightly pile of garbage bins.

Bar Americano, Melbourne

The above sign is your only clue and inside, your reward is an outstanding experience.

Walk up the stairs and through the doors and you might think you’ve stepped back in time into a bar/café in Italy. At this 10 person capacity venue by Matthew Bax (who has recently opened Bar Economico), you get to stand up. At the bar, you’ll see unlabelled decanters with colourful liquids that give no clue to brands or spirits.

You will find a menu and you can choose a tipple that takes your fancy, but leaving it up to the bartender is your best bet. With Hayden Scott Lambert behind the bar (he has since left and soon to open his own bar), it doesn’t take long before the best crafted Negroni ($22.50) is prepared. The Whisky Fix ($22.50) is another example of the excellence – peated whisky, fresh lemon juice, sugar and orange curacao. Indeed, it satisfies anyone with a whisky fixation.

Photography is not allowed at Bar Americano. Go for the cocktails, go for the bar chat, savour the experience and commit it to memory instead of your phone. This is one bar that will reel you in on every visit to Melbourne.

Bar Americano
20 Presgrave Place
(from Little Collins St, turn into Howey Pl and left into Presgrave Pl)
Melbourne CBD, VIC 3000
www.facebook.com/baramericanomel