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Le Pub, by the team behind French Saloon and its sibling Kirk’s Wine Bar, zeroes in on punter-friendly prices and music on the corner of Hardware Lane and Little Bourke Street. It’s styled on the Aussie pub-plus-bottleshop format, nodding to the site’s past as Kirk’s Bazaar Hotel in the 19th century.

Expect casual bar service, counter meals and nine Australian craft beers on tap, including a custom Local Brewing Co stout. Wine might be something from the 1000-strong bottle selection, or the $15 house pour. A breakfast sandwich of cotechino sausage, comte and egg is served all day, most likely while indie rock blasts in the 100-capacity venue.

On a handwritten menu, you’ll find soup of the day alongside oysters Kilpatrick, and butter-poached leeks with truffle-hazelnut pesto. Retro favourites such as potato cakes and custard-soaked bread-and-butter pudding also appear. The pie’s a showstopper: braised oxtail and snail with a whole marrow bone set in a golden suet crust.

The new adjoining bottle shop holds a towering wall of wine plus a row of fridges that together hold about 250 bottles. There are tables for drinkers and diners, and big groups can hang out in the hewn-stone cellar downstairs, a surprise discovery during construction. Bottles from the retail section can be enjoyed in the venue for $25 corkage.

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