Today I Like To Remind You About These Funky Places

Atticus Finch - Cider on tap, classy tapas, beer garden, oodles of comfortable seats, old books to read and a Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet behind the counter. Staff are very good and relaxed about how long you sit and chat. If you like, do what I have become accustommed to do in this part of town on a relaxing Saturday afternoon - have an iced coffee at Brunswick East Project or tea at Hellenic Republic, then flip a coin to decide whether it is a tequila cocktail at Mi Corazon Tequila Bar or a cider at Atticus (which is a nice walk down the road). Then try to get a table for dinner at Bar Idda, land of the best marinated fried sardines. Not to mention farro salad, baked eggplant layered with tomatoes and pecorino and homemade pasta with sugo ragu, to follow with a ridiculously good-looking chocolate cannelloni and a cup of three-dollar Italian hot chocolate.

Please note: the traffic on Lygon Street that separates Atticus and Bar Idda is as crazy as it can get in Melbourne, so if you have to jaywalk, don't walk. Run. With eyes wide open and quick reflexes. I have caused a couple of heart attacks for friends in the skip-and-bound from Atticus for a table at Bar Idda...

1000 Pound Bend - Little Lonsdale Street between Elizabeth and Queen Street Melbourne. Random food (no chips here), coffees, so many couches you'd think they raided a furniture dumpster, cherry blossom light installation. The staff give good customer service while being uber-relaxed about how long you lounge around the place without spending any money. Bonus: free secure wi-fi.

Horse Bazaar - best value Japanese lunch menu in a bar I have seen so far - this is probably one of the few places in town I will happily fork out money for tempura anytime. The staff are happy and relaxed even on a Friday night, drinks are reasonably priced (again, cider on the tap but try a cocktail or two), the space is comfortable as an immmersive projection environment and the music is soul-cool. Bonus: sits opposite Design Depot, a little shop crammed with the kind of useful art that you wish you had thought up of.