The North Fitzroy Star is that quintessential home away from home pub – a welcoming watering hole, tucked into a residential North Fitzroy street with the kind of hospitality an English pub is renowned for. Each room is decked out in a domestically scaled parlour-style atmosphere, with rugs, couches, heavy fringed brocade drapes and lush lampshades – everywhere you look it’s like a garage sale gone right.

Sit out front for people watching or perch at the bar and enjoy the friendly company of the bar staff. The book-lined walls of the front room afford quality alone time, while board games and a roaring winter fireplace makes for cosy, quiet play with friends.

The sunny dining room offers a chintz angle on glamour, with furniture draped in bright floral fabric and a menu that’s a cut above your standard pub-grub. Try duck neck sausage with beetroot jam, or slow roasted lamb shoulder with yoghurt and lemon sauce, or for sharing, grilled haloumi with spiced fig and almond, or tomato arancini with aoli. Then again, you can just buy a bag crisps with your beer from a list that is steeped in boutique brews from near and far.