• First Look: With views for days, you’ll want a window seat at Marnong Estate’s new Italian diner La Vetta.
• Olive oil is expensive. So, top local producer Mount Zero is giving you the chance to win a year’s supply of the golden good stuff. All the details.
• Unadulterated and unmissable, Chae in Cockatoo is a Victorian dining experience unlike any other.
We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.
SIGN UP• First Look: Hot-honey fried chicken biscuits and fish’n’chip butties at ace Carlton cafe Shooter McGavin’s. It’s named after (but is a lot more likeable than) the worst character in ’90s golf comedy Happy Gilmore.
• Local Knowledge: $1.50 pastizzi (flaky Maltese pastries) at a bright-red shop in the ’burbs. Using a recipe that goes back five generations, the team is making up to 3600 parcels a day with fillings like true-to-tradition ricotta, plus less conventional flavours.
• “What a wild three-and-a-bit years”: in sad news, Carlton nightclub and live music venue Colour is closing.
• One of Melbourne’s absolute best Japanese cafes, Ima Project, is moving from Carlton to Brunswick.
• First Look: Full Moon Fever, Lulie’s new Cali-inspired rooftop bar, will have you dreaming of the desert. It’s all sun, stone and succulents.
• Revealed: a $100 million masterplan for art deco icon Burnham Beeches, in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges. It’s set to become a luxury hotel – with a raft of on-site dining and drinking options, a spa retreat, and more.
• A former chef at NYC hotspot Carbone is now on the pans at an Italo-American Joint in Melbourne. (And his spicy vodka fusilli is A-plus.)
• First Look: Smith Street Alimentari 2.0 has an Ottolenghi-style salad bar and a beautiful goods store.
• First Look: A “formaggio” sign marks the spot at Grana, the fancy Brunswick deli by Tipo 00 and Osteria Ilaria. Next door to the team’s new Lygon Street pizzeria Figlia, it’s a one-stop shop for pre-dinner snacks.
• Starward enters the ready-to-drink arena with a new range of canned cocktails. Think whisky, ginger beer and zesty orange; and whisky, soda and tangy finger lime.