Bar Margaux in Melbourne’s CBD serves French-style food and cocktails until 3am

You’ll have to look hard to spot this winter’s latest drink trend, but at Bar Margaux you’ll find these cool cocktails alongside French bistro classics in a New York-style bar.

Oysters and snack-sized martini at Bar Margaux. Picture: Gareth Sobey

Question: What’s the best way to annoy/impress Sydneysiders visiting Melbourne?

Answer: Take them to dinner at 10pm and then casually suggest, sometime after midnight, going somewhere for a nightcap.

Spend any time in Sin City and conversation inevitably turns to the effect the lockout laws have had on not only the directly affected clubs and bars, but as The Castle’s Dennis Denuto famously put it: the vibe.

According to the City of Sydney, half a million fewer people under 35 are visiting the city each year since the laws came into effect and this has killed any sort of buzz the city had.

But maybe they’ve got it wrong. Perhaps the best way to manage late-night booze isn’t to call last drinks (hello six o’clock swill) but to encourage more mature ways of consuming it.

Such as snack-sized cocktails.

Escargot and Black Velvet at Bar Margaux. Picture: Gareth Sobey

Duck frites at Bar Margaux. Picture: Gareth Sobey

If two’s company and three’s a trend, here in Melbourne it’s not just Coles that’s in on the mini craze. Head to the excellent Omnia in South Yarra and you have the option of a $6 three-sip negroni to get your dinner under way in Mad Men-does-Dry July style, or head down the stairs to Bar Margaux in the city where a perfectly made martini awaits, just in half-sized form.

This subterranean pleasure palace offers a very adult playground of “burgers and Burgundy, vins and dins” where the inspiration of such New York institutions as Balthazar and Pastis is clear.

It’s a gorgeous white-tiled space (yes, it’s loud), where the Art Deco charms of the bar give way to red-leather booths at the back where those drinks and supper is served until 5am on Saturday and Sunday mornings and 3am all others.

Of course those cocktails are impeccable — the martini is crisp, ice-cold and fat olive-adorned; the manhattan equal parts sweet and sharp, $12 each — for this is the latest from

Michael and Zara Madrusan, the duo behind Fitzroy’s old-school The Everleigh and the rollicking dive bar Heartbreaker.

Bar Margaux serves hungry and thirsty punters until the wee small hours. Picture: Gareth Sobey

Bar Margaux takes cues from both: there’s the Everleigh in stylish stemware, a focus on classic drinks and natty service, while there’s Heartbreaker in the dim, devil-may-care drink-till-dawn din. It’s outrageously terrific fun.

This winter’s hottest trend is not just small sips of spirits but the rebirth of once cool cocktails and to that end look no further than the Black Velvet. This odd-sounding-but-delicious combination of champagne topped with Guinness makes this little boy smile ($12). See also: Irish coffee ($21) and Brandy Alexander ($22) and they’re not too proud to have a bottle of crème de menthe on the shelf. If you ask for a grasshopper, I’m sure they’d oblige.

It’s not just all strong stuff. A big showing of Champagne is augmented by a worldly wine list of natural-leaning producers from here and there which reads almost as well as the menu.

Almost.

Offering French bistro classics until the wee hours, it’s a clever carte of all the things you want to eat three sheets to the wind — onion soup, steak frites, roast chicken — with the plats du jour ticking off the rest, from beef bourguignon through to cassoulet.

Snack-sized Manhattan at Bar Margaux. Picture: Gareth Sobey

It’s just a pity much of what looks so good on paper pales on the plate — surprising given chef Daniel Southern has spent time in some of the biggest and best, including Bistro Guillaume, Comme and Vue de monde. That cassoulet is a loveless plate of mushy beans and porky protein that lacked any of the lusciously cosseting richness that’s a hallmark of this winter dish, which certainly wasn’t improved by being served cool ($29).

Ditto a lovely idea of duck frites, where a blast under the salamander would’ve helped terrific, pink-hued Great Ocean duck breast sliced across a mound of OK fries to properly sing ($37).

Pan-tanned pillows of gnocchi Parisienne were fine if underseasoned ($27) and while there’s so much to like both about the pond of Pernod-spiked butter each of the escargot come swimming in and the medieval torture device used to extract them, it’s a shame they were so very small ($18).

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A classic moules marinieres was better ($19), the plump Portarlington beauties in their white wine sauce a good opening act, and the gruyere-topped onion soup is a hearty version of the species ($16).

The Margaux burger, however, didn’t live up to its sauce bordelaise hype, the slovenly double patty-cheese-bacon combo underwhelmingly bland and unnecessarily messy ($26).

But no faulting the pricing — sub $20 entrees and up to mid $30s for mains — even before you time a late lunch for the 4-6pm “golden hour” where that burger and a glass of burgundy, or oysters and a glass of champagne, is just $29.

Certainly no faulting all the fun that can still be had in late night Melbourne. And Bar Margaux has good times and great drinks in spades.

Bar Margaux

111 Lonsdale St, City

barmargaux.com.au

Open: Nightly from 4pm

Go-to dish: Duck frites

Score: 13/20