While Carlton has no shortage of places to eat, finding a bar stool where you can perch with a well-made cocktail is a different matter.

Good Measure, a new bar slash cafe with low-waste practices and an easygoing attitude, might change that. Friends Max Allison, Brandon Jo and Mitchell Miller opened the Lygon Street spot in late October, operating it as a cafe during the day and adding bar service after their liquor licence was approved in January.

Allison and Jo handle things poured into glasses; Miller is the coffee maestro, working with Code Black beans, which can be matched with a sandwich or Spitz's Bakehouse babka.

Interiors are part Japanese minimalist and part ski chalet, and get plenty of morning sun, perfect for the daytime coffee trade. A rear courtyard seats 30.

There are no bottles behind the bar, just a big wall of taps – 21 to be exact. They dispense lagers, pale ales and cider from craft breweries, plus Guinness, sake, house lemonade and four batched cocktails. Even the wine comes from the taps. It's all in the name of cutting down on glass waste, a big problem for bars.

Allison says the trio are happy to march to their own beat. "A lot of decisions we made for the business were based on things we didn't like about other venues." That means no paper menus, no bookings and beer taps that change often.

A line-up of three to four seasonal cocktails makes the most of produce from The Orchard Keepers, Northside Fruit & Vegetables and others, as in the recent Plum Garibaldi, a mix of plum liqueur, scotch rested on skins and stones of the fruit, mead and soda. Bar snacks are simple: cheese, pickles and friends.

Cafe open Mon-Fri 7.30am-3.30pm, Sat-Sun 8am-3.30pm; bar open Fri-Sun 5pm-midnight

193 Lygon Street, Carlton, Instagram @goodmeasuremelbourne

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