To people of a certain age, St Kilda’s Saint Hotel will always be associated with dancing. Throughout the 2000s and into the next decade, its notorious Sunday parties attracted the city’s biggest sesh gremlins, punters very often carrying on from Revolver or Onesixone the morning or night before.

There’ll be dancing at upstairs listening bar Stellas, the next phase of the Saint’s recent relaunch – but that’s where the similarities end.

General manager Mrinal Beekarry is a fan of Brunswick’s Waxflower. When he took along Jimmy Field, one of the Saint’s new co-owners, they agreed a similarly high-end listening bar was just what the two-storey pub needed. They went to Hobart-based audio company Pitt & Giblin, hoping to get two or four of the same Superwax speakers originally designed for Waxflower.

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“About halfway through the process they came back to us and said, ‘Hang on, we’re not going to do the same thing we’ve done at other places. We want to do something different’,” Beekarry says.

That “something” is a towering freestanding speaker dubbed Tenet, with twin subwoofers in its base and a gorgeous bronze cone at head height. Standing three metres high, Tenet is a work of art in itself – and Stellas has two of them, the first pair ever built.

“This assembly is our crown jewel. A result of years in research, development, experimentation, prototyping, testing, refinement and design,” Pitt & Giblin’s website proclaims. “Everything we know, all we’ve learnt, this is large format hi-fi taken to the extreme.”

Pitt & Giblin also designed and built the bar’s handsome DJ booth, and chose the high-end Varia Instruments rotary mixer that sits inside. Built in Switzerland, it looks like something rescued from a World War II aircraft. DJs chosen by Wat Artists work it during month-long residencies, playing afro, jazz, funk, house and more until 3am.

As at Waxflower, eating and drinking are just as important as listening. The food menu lifts grown-up snacks and small plates from the downstairs menu, so you can eat well without touching cutlery. There are cheese boards and charcuterie platters, prawn katsu sandos on house-baked shokupan, duck croquettes with pickled plums, and dainty parmesan choux pastries stuffed with sauteed mushrooms.

Beer and wine are on hand, but a quick flick through the technique-driven menu by former Bouvardia bartender Roy Das Neves could have you in the mood for cocktails.

“It’s basically liquid food,” says Beekarry. “There’s so much work that goes into each beverage … there’s acidifying, lacto-fermenting, fat-washing and dehydrating, among a whole lot of other processes.”

The Funky Kong, for example, consists of Starward Two Fold whisky, Killik Silver rum, spicy mole bitters, toasted koji and coconut water. Nature Feels features 78 Degrees Sunshine State gin, melon, radish, yellow chartreuse and lemon juice. The usual classic cocktails are available if you’re after something familiar.

Drink in hand, the only question is whether you’re going to dance. We think you should. The speakers are banging. There’s that rare 3am licence. And you owe it to the ghosts of sesh gremlins past.

Stellas
Level 1, 54 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda
(03) 8652 7554

Hours

Stellas
Fri & Sat 6pm–3am

Saint Dining
Daily 12pm–3pm & 6pm–11pm

Saint Bar
Daily 12pm–late

Bar 54
Fri & Sat 6pm–late

sainthotel.com.au