• First look: Greek favourite Kafeneion reopens at The Melbourne Supper Club

• First look: Westgarth’s Samuel Pepys has transformed into a sunny new wine bar.

• Eight to try: Lunar New Year dishes, treats and desserts from Asian-owned businesses.

We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.

SIGN UP

• Coming soon: Whimsical ice-creamery Fluffy Torpedo to open two new Melbourne stores this year.

• Now open: The couple behind the Pierogi Pierogi food truck open Eat Pierogi Make Love, a Polish diner in Brunswick East.

• Now open: An ex-Nobu chef cooks “Japanese steak frites” at Darling Group’s new izakaya-inspired Token.

• Be my valentine: The Melbourne venues that own our hearts.

• Now open: Rumi’s sibling venue Rocket Society in East Brunswick Village nods to the Lebanese space race (and has $8 flatbread sandwiches).

• Now open: Castlerose is an underground restaurant beneath South Melbourne cafe Clementine, inspired by 20th-century English dining.

• Banh Mi Stand in the CBD is giving away 200 rolls and 200 Vietnamese iced coffees on Wednesday February 28 from 10am.

• Ben Shewry’s Ripponlea fine-diner Attica joins forces with a Melbourne drinks brand for a left-of-centre collab.

• Poodle Bar & Bistro chef Emma Dawson shares where she finds the best brisket pastrami bagel, the best new date spot in Melbourne and the ice-cream spot with the “perfect treat”.

• Help, I’m still at the restaurant: Where to eat in Melbourne based on your fave Taylor Swift era.

You might have missed

• Recipe: Pipis Kiosk’s heirloom tomato salad with whipped silken tofu and cherry dressing.

• Three Aussie-made cucumber-flavoured hard seltzers to help you cool off.

Listen up

• This week on the Broadsheet podcast Around Town, we chat with Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie to hear about this year’s Mona Foma highlights and catch up with our Melbourne food and drink editor to talk about Rocket Society and a new restaurant app.

More, please

• Gareth Whitton of Tarts Anon and Sydney pastry chef Anna Polyviou have collaborated on two special tarts: choc brownie and raspberry doughnut. To celebrate, Polyviou will be at Tarts Anon Cremorne this Saturday February 17 from 9am. She’ll also be handing out free tubs of edible cookie dough to the first 100 people to visit the store. The collab flavours will only be available to the Cremorne store.

• Scarf, a social enterprise that offers hospitality training to young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds seeking protection, is hosting its Do More Than Dine fundraiser dinner again for the first time since the pandemic. Chefs Thi Le of Jeow, Jordan Clay of Pipis Kiosk and Kyle Nicol of Lilac Wine Bar will be cooking at Square One Rialto on Thursday April 18.

• Japanese restaurant Ichi Ni Izakaya in St Kilda has announced it will close after service on Sunday February 18. “It’s sad to be closing after so many years but we received an offer for the venue and decided to take it,” spokesperson Erika Cristofori told Broadsheet.

• Popular Sydney-based Irish-Australian chef Colin Fassnidge is joining I Carusi II chef Murat Ovaz next Saturday February 24 for a one-time-only collab dinner at the St Kilda pizzeria. The five-course dinner is $95 per person and will include a Turkish lahmacun (flatbread) from Ovaz and a “surprise” calzone from Fassnidge.