• Popular Melbourne grocer Leaf – which already has locations in Elwood and Hawthorn – has opened a third venue, on High Street in Armadale. It’s a slick shopfront (next to the new Lune) with an Aussie-first self-pour Schulz Organic Dairy “milk bar”, where you can BYO glass bottles.

• First Look: The tacos come lightning fast at CDMX, Melbourne’s new Mexico City-inspired taqueria. From the team behind Seddon’s Superchido, it’s here for a good time, not a long time.

• These are all the new Melbourne restaurant, cafe and bar openings we got excited about in September.

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• The best barista in the world is a Melburnian. He’s the first Aussie to win in seven years, beating out 47 competitors from across the globe.

• Let them eat cake! Piccolina launches three extravagant new gelato cakes: strawberries and cream, native fairy bread, and Gianduiotto. Buonissimo.

• Recycling across Victoria is about to get easier, and you’ll get a new bin too. We’ll be the first in the country to follow a simple four-bin system – and we’ll even be able to recycle our pizza boxes.

• Got dietary requirements? An app has launched in Melbourne to help take the stress out of dining out.

• First Look: A double-decker wine bar and shop that proves Bluebonnet’s owner is no one-trick pony. Chef Chris Terlikar is best known for smoky slabs of Texas-style barbeque. But you’ll find none of that at this charming 140-year-old former pub.

• First Look: Acai bar Lovabowl started in the back of a Fitzroy North fruit shop. Now it has its own home.

• Melbourne chef Mia Coady-Plumb is hosting a four-day-only “French-ish” pop-up at Theodore’s called Fiend. Think chicken-liver parfait with crispy chicken skin and fennel tarte tatin.

• Sad news: Bar Americano, a quintessentially Melbourne laneway bar, is closing after 11 years. “So, if you want one last Negroni at 20 Presgrave Place,” owner Matt Bax says, “consider this [your] warning.”

• “Facing a roadblock that simply cannot be overcome”, CBD pasta bar Pentolina is also closing. “Needless to say, we’re devastated.”

• Now open in Brunswick: At Tino, the empanadas are never the same but the Pisco Sours are always $15. A homey new Latin American-inspired bar and eatery has taken over the former Rascal site on Sydney Road.