• Free bagels alert: new Brunswick East cafe Bellboy is giving away 100 this Friday. There’s a bagelified muffuletta. Enough said.

• These are 35 of the best things to happen in Melbourne in 2020 – despite (or, strangely, because of) Covid-19.

• The casarecce with peppery pecorino fondue and crunchy guanciale is a knockout at Richmond’s Ganzo.

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• Industry Beans has opened a monochrome “coffee arch” at Chadstone. Caffeinate, then grab some beans and brew gear to go.

• Vex Dining is a clever new veg-forward wine bar by two former Neighbourhood Wine and Bar Romantica head chefs. On the menu: smoky-sweet turnips, brown butter fish and boozy amaro sorbet.

• The hottest fashion of accessory of 2021: this mortadella merch.

• Pasta Club is our kinda club. It’s a private, carby dining experience for you and your pasta-loving mates in a vibrant Italian-style courtyard.

• Mordialloc’s Urban Ground has hit the trifecta: it’s a three-in-one food-truck park, health-food cafe and distillery.

• A new luxury hotel lands in Melbourne next month, with a restaurant from Coda’s Adam D’Sylva and a “cocoon-like” cocktail bar with a secret laneway entrance.

• Finally: there’s an opening date for Alejandro Saravia’s Farmer’s Daughters, a Gippsland-focused farm-to-table restaurant at 80 Collins.

• Bar Liberty’s Michael Bascetta is part of the team behind Good Spirits, a nifty new online hub for Aussie bottled cocktails and craft booze.

• Coon Cheese has announced its new name after years of complaints about the racist meaning of the term.

• Footscray’s moody, 25-seat speakeasy Trouble in Dreams pays homage to the world’s great cocktails and their inventors.

• Beloved Aussie broadcaster Myf Warhurst now has her very own goon sack.

• Don’t waste time waiting in line. This new app lets you start a restaurant or bar tab – and pay for everything on your phone.