Dawn and Mabel’s
An Art Deco-style bar with a globetrotting wine list.
Contemporary$
This Acland Street wine bar has brought a new life to a strip crying out for more options. The look is Art Deco with second-hand lamps and deep-blue walls; a curved timber bar wraps around an open kitchen and a table for 12 sits snugly in a rear nook used for Wednesday wine tastings.
The list of 92 wines roams the world but pings frequently on France and Italy. Tap wine and beer flow particularly freely during happy hour (3-6pm) when house beverages are $8.
A snacky menu includes excellent extra-long lamb cigars with preserved lemon harissa, beetroot carpaccio showered with grated manchego, and a fun preserved seafood plate with pickled herring and smoked trout called “Blame The Fisherman”.
The bar joins nearby Walrus Oyster Bar on Inkerman Street and Chronicles on Fitzroy Street in a circuit of welcoming St Kilda places with a focus on locals, rather than day-trippers and tourists.
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Emma Breheny – Emma is Good Food’s Melbourne eating out and restaurant editor and editor of The Age Good Food Guide.