Bar Di Stasio

Café Di Stasio, the candlelit Melbourne institution sporting starched white tablecloths and spilling over with old-school Italian charm, has expanded to include a polished, pared-back bar space adjacent to its restaurant in St Kilda.

The World Class venue features a deep marble bar, which stretches from the door to the far wall. The luminous dove grey marble shines in stark contrast to the bold ox-blood red of the industrial scaffolding that hangs over the entrance to the bar, installed by leading artist Callum Morton.

The space, service and clientele are polished but still casual, while the tables that run along the glassed wall are a clean, caramel wood. If you stand and lean your hip against the expansive bar, you can sip a $1.50 espresso as though you’d travelled to Firenze.

The menu has seen a change here, too. Salty Italian aperitivi – arancini and crisp, fried batons of eggplant – can be dipped in garlicky aioli between sips of Campari with a dash of soda, a candy-striped straw speared through its centre. Caprese has been switched up a little, baked rounds of goats’ cheese replacing the usual mozzarella, and seared slices of tuna come draped across creamy white beans, with leaves of parsley left whole amongst the folds.