An Ode to the Melbourne Venues We Lost in 2022

2022 was big for many reasons. Melbourne’s first lockdown-free year since 2019, it marked the triumphant return of large-scale events, and the city finally felt like it was properly abuzz again. But it was punctuated by the loss of some of Melbourne’s favourite restaurants, cafes, bars and live music venues – all of which had woven themselves into the city’s fabric, in their own way, whether over decades or in a few years.

One of the deepest-cut closures of the year was Bar Americano. Hidden on Presgrave Place in the CBD, it was about as quintessential as Melbourne laneway bars came – known for its stiff drinks, superb service and standing-room-only set-up. But the maverick behind it, Matt Bax, was determined to go out with a bang. His rousing, remarkable farewell tour for the tiny 11-year-old cocktail bar included a series of events – in collaboration with Attica’s Ben Shewry (where they sold limited-edition “Never Give Up” posters), Sydney burger joint Mary’s and nearby pasta bar Pentolina, which also shuttered this month. Since opening in early 2018, Julia Picone’s Italian diner, Pentolina, cemented itself as one of the CBD’s most reliable fresh-pasta destinations, serving lesser-seen shapes with good old-fashioned Italian hospitality in a tucked-away location just off Little Collins Street.

Treasured for similar reasons was Supermaxi, Rita Macali’s Fitzroy North Italian stalwart, which closed in July after 12 years on St Georges Road. Macali and her partner Giovanni Patane – a larger-than-life front-of-house presence in the regularly heaving dining room – made it a neighbourhood favourite with always-on-the-mark pizza (often so large it hung over the side of the plate) as well as a veal cotoletta my nonna would’ve approved of. We photographed the final service, immortalising the diner’s impact in this emotionally charged gallery. The night was big on banter, bear hugs and beaming faces.

In North Melbourne, we also said goodbye to one of the city’s most-loved bakeries, Beatrix, this year. Not long after the gut-punch announcement, then-Broadsheet editor Sinead Stubbins penned a tender tribute to what she called “the sugar-coated, cream-filled heart of North Melbourne”. While owner Nat Paull’s masterful cakes are still available to order (whole), her Queensberry Street HQ – which drew hours-long lines in the bakery’s last few weeks of trade – is irreplaceable. As Stubbins put it: “If you’ve never been to Beatrix, imagine what your 10-year-old self would guess that heaven looked like. A glass case sits in the middle of a sun-drenched room and is filled with rows and rows of every baked treat you could possibly imagine. Tarts seemingly groaning with layers of chestnut-coloured cream and bitter cookie crumbs; plump doughnuts filled with jam; lamingtons so perfectly speckled they almost look like a cartoon; heaps of gingerbread; and scrolls that glisten with glaze.”

Collingwood restaurant and wine bar Congress was another consistently excellent classic we lost in 2022. It had its last service in September, closing to honour the legacy of its late co-founder Katie McCormack, a hospitality powerhouse who tragically passed away from cancer in February. “Katie had the ability to light up a room, sharing her seemingly boundless energy, warmth and generosity with her guests and, in turn, leaving them with a lasting memory of their interaction,” her twin brother and business partner Michael McCormack wrote in a tribute earlier this year.

In the city, another mainstay bar – Crossley Street’s Romeo Lane – also called last drinks. Here, classic cocktails done consummately, and intimate, old-world charm were always guaranteed. “We’ve been privileged to operate where we have and be a part of our community for almost nine years,” the laneway bar’s team said at the time. “The opportunities this business has afforded us, and the relationships it’s forged, have been an honour. We’re lucky beyond doubt to have served you all and infinitely better off for having done so.”

And, after trading for just a month midyear, high-profile and highly anticipated Italian CBD restaurant Cucina Povera – by Icebergs’ Maurice Terzini and Mister Bianco’s Joe Vargetto – closed for good in what Vargetto admitted was an “unfortunate situation”.

Just as unfortunate was the closure of all three Melbourne locations of pay-what-you-can restaurant Lentil As Anything – after more than two decades. It struck a melancholic chord, despite recent allegations of financial mismanagement, given the business had provided food for the hungry, cultural meeting spaces for the community, and work for asylum seekers since 2000.

Also devastating was the untimely shuttering of Caulfield North’s Tuck Shop Take Away after nine years – as well as the nasty social media abuse that operators Clinton and Karina Serex were subjected to both before and after the announcement. They spoke out about in an op-ed in January.

Melbourne will also be worse off without 5 & Dime’s real-deal boiled and baked New York-style bagels, Big Dog’s Deli’s two-hands-necessary pastrami sandwiches, and Harper & Blohm, which in eight years became one of the city’s most reliable cheese (and toastie) destinations. We’ll also miss Fitzroy’s Nomada, for its constantly changing Spanish menu that kept diners pleasantly surprised, and under-the-radar Israeli restaurant Golda, where chef Rotem Papo’s approach was nostalgic, instinctual and coloured outside the lines.

Meanwhile, Thi Le and Jia-Yen Lee closed their outstanding modern-Vietnamese diner Anchovy to make way for their league-of-its-own Laotian restaurant Jeow (though the intention is for them reopen Anchovy in a new space down the track). And Jessi Singh shuttered his Flinders Lane wine bar Mrs Singh and reimagined it as Bar Bombay Yacht Club.

And while Melbourne institution Moroccan Soup Bar said goodbye to its Fitzroy North home this year – and we honoured its departure by publishing a collection of the napkin love letters it’s received from diners over the years – owner Hana Assafiri has since reopened it in the form of a pop-up in North Melbourne.

And lastly, after a wild three-and-a-bit years, Carlton nightclub and live music venue Colour also announced it would close at the end of the year. Get to the pleasure dome one last time.

This article was updated on December 22 to recognise Tuck Shop Take Away’s closure.