I'm afraid this blog is going to turn into a complete review of the best eating and drinking establishments Melbourne has to offer. But I guess that wouldn't be a bad thing since it would mean I'm doing really fun things with really interesting people!
After fully testing out the Hyatt room service menu (really not up to expectations) two others in the same situation decreed it wasteful to eat in your room when Melbourne has so many fantastic options. Needless to say I'm now on their email list for nightly food experiences when I'm in town.
My adventures started with my teammate, KM, who moved here a year and a half ago from the US. She took me for brunch in her neighbourhood, Fitzroy, about a 20 minute walk from me. (Melbourne itself is actually really, really small...everywhere someone might live is a different precinct.) I can't remember the name of the place where we ate, but it was small, cozy, and had great baked eggs, which apparently is a Melbourne classic. I had mine with ground beef and pumpkin in it. Delish.
KM then marched me around town and was a really fantastic tour guide. We checked out craft markets, she taught me how to use the trolley system, took me to a great bubble tea place, and finally led me around Vic Market, which is the most massive meat, fruit, and veggie market I have seen outside of Thailand.
After all of this walking I was ready to move onto my afternoon's activities - a craft beer pub crawl around the city with L&D, two associates working at the same client as I am, but on a different team (from Sweden and the US). We started at Mrs Parma's, quite close to the hotel. It was okay....I think they are better known for their parma than their beer. (*None of these pictures are mine. I'm not settled in enough yet to bust out the camera!)
The third stop was the Royston. Nice bar to sit at, pool table for some of the guys, and a ton of local beer on tap.
Fourth we checked out Grumpy's Green which is all about being green and local. No picture of this place. It was pretty boring. Finally, we ended up (yes, this was our fifth bar and about 6 hours later) at Little Creatures Dining Hall which was very neat. By this point I had switched to organic cola. (That kind of place. No real Coke. I was fading fast from a surplus of beer and lingering jet lag.) The bar / restaurant is in old stables from before Melbourne had cars. Again, I didn't find the food particularly good, but then again, I was really, really tired.
Unfortunately at this point I had to call it a night, but the rest of the group hit up four or five other places before 2am. Looking forward to next Saturday!!
Sunday I had to do a bit of work in the morning, and then went on a big walking tour of my new surrounds. I was in search of (1) the only manicure in the city under $20; (2) the only massage in the city under $90/hour; (3) sushi for lunch. After an hour and a half of walking I thought the day would be a total failure. I had covered a ton of ground and found nothing! All through Chinatown and not a cheap manicure in sight. But persistence paid off and I now have regular appointments with a little Vietnamese place in Fitzroy. I did fail at finding the massage place, but made up for it by finding the only sushi restaurant that is open for lunch at 3pm (most places close between lunch and dinner). It did mean a whole lot of walking though!!
Sunday night I met up with what I think will be come the usual dinner crowd for drinks (Pims!) at 252 Swanston, a rooftop bar that turns into a rooftop outdoor movie theatre when the weather gets better (excited for that!) and then a really fantastic dinner at Easy Tiger. Easy Tiger has an Asian fusion set tasting menu on Sunday nights and was just incredible. Good company, a good bottle of rose, and a lot of good food sent me to bed happy and more or less ready for another week at work! Unfortunately that means I'm out of town and missing the gourmet steak BBQ at an Australian associate's house!!