I love Melbourne. Truly, if it was nearer to my friends and family in the UK, I would move there in a heartbeat. I am lucky enough to have a very lovely and excellent friend there who I visit as often as I can, giving me the perfect excuse to explore one of my favourite cities as a 'local' rather than a tourist. So I can't tell you about hotels, but I can recommend things to do, see, eat and buy in Melbourne.
The Arts Edit
Melbourne has a thriving contemporary art scene, but my first stop on every visit is the National Gallery of Victoria. The NGV has two sites, one of which highlights international art and often has fantastic temporary exhibtitions. The second site at Federation Square has an amazing collection of Australian art, including some wonderful indigenous work.
ACMI, or the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, is also situated at Federation Square, and has a truly fantastic exhibition programme. My last two visits have introduced me to video artists whose work I didn't know before but who I am now obsessed with: Candice Breitz and Julian Rosefeldt.
Melbourne is well known for its street art, but these days it is hard to find the best quality pieces. Hosier Lane used to be the centre for artists, with its own curator, but it is now a mess of tagging and tourists. Small galleries and spaces around the city still provide highlights though - including the nearby Chapter House Lane and Flinders Street Gallery. I thoroughly recommend taking a walking tour with Bernadette from
walk to art to explore all that is new in the Melbourne art scene.
Outside the CBD (Central Business District), I loved the Heide Museum of Modern Art, the beautiful house of art collectors John and Sunday Reed set in wonderful grounds which houses their fascinating collection and an intriguing programme of exhibitions.
William Ricketts Sanctuary is an oddity (understatement) in the glades of Mount Dandenong, about an hour outside the city. Ricketts was a self-taught and reclusive artist whose respect for nature and the indigenous people of Australia inspired him to create this sculpture park where he lived and worked for decades before his death in 1993.
The Food and Drink Edit
Melbourne is OBSESSED with coffee. To a ridiculous level. For someone who likes coffee but doesn't *love* it, it is hard to understand the complexity with which Melbournites can imbue it. What I do know, however, is that the city is full to the brim of cafes and coffee shops, from the old school diners to ultra-hip brick wall warehouse spaces. The best I've found have been outside the CBD: The Foreigner in Ivanhoe, and Auction Rooms in North Melbourne.
Also in Ivanhoe can be found one of the best pizzas I've had outside Italy, at L'Artigiano, a beautiful little local Italian restaurant which is well worth the twenty minute train from the city centre.
Chin Chin serves brilliant thai street food, in a cool warehouse space on Flinders Lane with queues out of the door. I particularly recommend the 'wok-tossed brown rice w. sweet pork, salted duck egg, basil and crispy school prawns' (yes I did ask for a copy of the menu so I wouldn't forget this dish. I also bought the cookbook.) The red duck curry and larb gai were also delicious. We ordered far too much and I couldn't eat for about three days afterwards.
When I was finally ready to eat again, I found myself wandering past
Royal Stacks in the rain (I never said Melbourne was perfect - don't get me started on the weather...). I was hungry, I fancied a burger, end of story, right? Well, yes, except that it's worth noting that what I found was my PERFECT BURGER. The search is finally over. The perfect patty, the perfect cheese, the perfect bun, the perfect amount of pickle and mustard. Goddamn it being 10,000 miles from home. I mean, seriously, goddamn it.
Au Fermier is about an hour outside the city, in the small town of Trentham. Owned and run by Annie Smithers, it is perfection. There is no menu, just a set three course lunch/dinner which showcases local produce, as much of it as possible coming from Smithers' own garden. We ate wonderful pasta with prawns and courgettes (zucchini), delicious lamb with feta and beetroot and a blissfully sweet pavlova with lemon curd and passionfruit. The room is beautiful, the service is topnotch and the atmosphere relaxed and friendly. I will definitely be back.
For drinks, Melbourne is full of fantastic rooftop bars, of which Madame Brussels is one of the most fun. Who can resist a jug of cocktails and a huge cheese plate with a view of the city?
Bar Lourinha serves really fantastic tapas and has a great wine list. Squeeze yourself into the tiny space, grab a seat at the bar and settle in.
The Shopping Edit
Melbourne is full of fantastic boutiques hidden down laneways, and the only thing that stops me buying ALL OF THE CLOTHES is the fact that it's entirely the wrong season and I am fickle so worry that I will have lost interest in them all by the time they are weather-appropriate in London. My particular window-shopping favourites are Zimmerman, Sass & Bide and Life with Bird (particularly their outlet store on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy).
Otherwise, I always stock up on Aesop skincare products, Gewurzhaus spices and Kikki K stationery. And spend a few hours wandering around Gertrude and Smith Streets in Fitzroy, hanging out at Readings bookshop in Carlton, and pottering at the wondrous Queen Victoria Market, which I DREAM of having near me in London.
