Melbourne Laneway Bars

Melbourne Bars – Best Laneway Bars

Melbourne is renowned for its hidden, laneway bars. Some of the most interesting and quirky venues have sprung up over the years in the most absurd of places. This list is a testament to those venues that have truly made the Melbourne Bars scene one of the best in the world

 1. Gin Palace – 10 Russell Place, Melbourne

The term “gin palace” was used, pejoratively, during the 19th Century to describe disreputable and socially undesirable drinking houses. In the USA, it was particularly employed to identify the licensed paddle steamers that plied the Mississippi River, so-called “floating gin palaces”. True to its proud history, The Gin Palace has housed innumerable gatherings where hilarity and immoderate behavior have reigned, with completely ridiculous consequences. Suffice it to say, the establishment has been a bashful recipient of multitudinous awards, and has earned legendary status amongst the world’s best bars.

 2. Croft Institute – 21 Croft Alley, Melbourne

We’re an unusual little cocktail bar tucked at the end of a winding alley in Melbourne’s Chinatown.  It’s an unpretentious kinda place & without a map or a local it’s a little hard to find! Spread over three levels, the ground floor is designed around a massive private collection of science lab ware & all manner of curious implements that will give you flashbacks to school days of mucking around with stuff most of us really had no clue about!  This level is open all week – plays pretty cool urban grooves & is generally a great hangout for a quiet afterwork wind down or pre-theatre tipple!

 3. Meyers Place – 20 Meyers Place, Melbourne

Conceived by architect firm Six Degrees, Meyers Place is made from salvaged and recycled materials, which give the hole-in-the-wall bar a pleasing, organic feel - which is more than you can say for most architect-designed joints. One of the few Melbourne bars to have earned the title "An Institution", Meyers Place was also one of the first hidden-lane treasures and is still worth a stumble off Bourke Street.

4. Misty – 3 Hosier Lane, Melbourne

A smooth, dark design bar down a light-box art illuminated lane. You'll meet tipsy revelers coming out and eager trendies going in while an arty after-work crowd inside looks at home by a bar of rounded edges and softly lit piñatas. There's plenty of comfy lounge space to lock you in forever while drinks include complicated cocktails and Campari's.

 5. Section 8 – 27 Tattersalls Lane, Melbourne

What do you get if you drop two containers, a couple of dozen shipping pallets and some outrageously cool people into a decrepit old inner city carpark? Why one of the smoothest, coolest, realest, most urban, cultured, gritty and quality filled bars that your eyes can feast upon! It’s a bit cold at the moment but that’s ok, we have heaters to warm the body, mulled wine to warm the belly and plenty good times to warm the soul. Check out what musical and other treaties we have coming up for you in the near future, and you just might find something that you can groove to. So roll on down, relax, take off your worries, put on your happy hat and enjoy the atmosphere...

6. Loop Bar – 23 Meyers Place, Melbourne

Loop is a versatile project space/bar that presents film and video, audio-visual performance, experimental music and art forums. Our eclectic art program ensures Loop reinvents itself nightly. Our purpose built screens and audio-visual equipment are ideal for live audio visual sets, public film screenings, private film launches, exhibitions and soft, subtle bar backdrop imagery.  If you are not attending our arts events, the bar provides a warm and sophisticated ambience: enjoy a quiet beer or cocktail with friends on a weeknight or a more energetic romp soaking up tunes expertly mixed and diced by our resident DJs over the weekends.  Always accompanied by live visuals, Loop’s weekends provide an exciting club vibe within the confines of an intimate bar.  New features include The Nice & Ego Show – Mr. Nice’s new live audio-visual pop culture set every third Friday of the month, and Photography Night Walks every Thursday.  Go to Loop’s website for full program and bar details.

7. Double Happiness – 21 Liverpool Street, Melbourne

This stylish 'hole in the wall' has no sign, but has become a landmark in its own right. The tongue-in-cheek interior features an array of Chinese socialist propaganda posters while the names of the fusion cocktails are taken from infamous moments in communist history.

 8. Spice Market - Beaney Lane, Melbourne

New bar and cocktail lounge Spice Market has opened in the refurbished Grand Hyatt Melbourne in the up-market 'Paris End' of the Collins St precinct. A concept three years in the making by innovative restaurateurs Dean and Geremy Lucas. Unique, colourful and exotic, the bar is accessible from Beaney Lane and caters for up to 600 guests. A premium beverage offering including the signature Turkish Delight Martini and a menu of Mezze style dishes of authentic Middle Eastern flavours designed by Executive Chef Greg Malouf of MoMo, ensures a distinctive experience for guests

 9. 24 Moons – ACDC Lane, Melbourne

24 Moons (The Modern Day Speakeasy) is a dark, opulent-esque, underground space, located in the discreet playground of progressive ACDC lane. The bar offers over twenty-four manicured cocktails and an experimental interactive artistic platform.  It’s a chic cocktail lounge featuring a sophisticated blend of textures and materials. The interior, designed by 24 Moon’s pioneers, cultivates a strange melting point between urban meets the natural. The affluent mood is reinforced by forest motifs decorating the walls. It’s dimly lit through pixelated-dappled light seeping throughout the space, creating an ambient sensibility.

 10. Murmur – 17 Warburton Lane, Melbourne

Behind the hustle and bustle of Elizabeth Street, hidden in the undergrowth of Melbourne's corporate jungle lies a sophisticated boutique drinkers' hide away, Murmur. Inhabiting a coffee and spice warehouse of yesteryear, this rustic alleyway setting has been transformed into an exquisite lounge created as the ideal space to unwind with a cocktail.