With so many excellent restaurants, bakeries and coffee shops, it’s easy to take Melbourne’s bar scene for granted. But these 10 newcomers – including a saké den, a Chinese cocktail bar and an ode to video stores – are further proof Melbourne is one of the best drinking cities in the world.

Bar Ferdinand, CBD

The newest from Hunter St Hospitality (Rockpool, Spice Temple) is part bar, part museum. As soon as you enter via the grand staircase, Bar Ferdinand is the kind of place that makes you forget where you are and what year it is. The room transports you to the opulent old world, and each inventive cocktail is based on flora found in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens – which is fitting, considering the bar is in a space that was once the office of Sir Ferdinand von Mueller, the German Australian botanist who ran the gardens in the late 19th century. It’s tempting to try them all, though probably a better idea to come back for another visit. But if you only go once, please order the German pretzel slathered in herb butter. – Scott Renton, Hot List editor

Bar Kaeru, CBD

This is the year Sean Then truly became one to watch. The Bar Kaeru founder also opened Interlude, one of the best new tea houses of the year so far, and continues to run forward-thinking coffee shop Cafe Tomi. At Bar Kaeru, hidden on Little La Trobe Street, he shifts focus to saké – something he learned a lot about while working at the now-shuttered Leonie Upstairs. The ever-changing drinks list has enough variety for saké nerds, but the team also loves to help guide the curious. The design is futuristic and the bar is just hard enough to find that stopping in for a drink makes you feel like a real insider. Plus, there are exceptional snacks, including a killer potato salad with house-made potato chips on top like echidna spikes. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food & drink editor

Bar Sala, Abbotsford

The term “listening bar” was fraught almost as soon as it came along. While early entries like Waxflower and Bahama Gold were founded by career DJs and/or long-time hi-fi and vinyl enthusiasts, some openings since have felt more committed to the aesthetic than really celebrating music. Bar Sala is no pretender. Owner Nathan Toleman installed four ’70s-made Tannoy Arden speakers at his Cremorne wine bar Lilac in 2023, before the phrase “listening bar” had really taken off as a marketing hook. At Sala he’s followed up with dual Yamaha NS-1000s, also introduced in the ’70s, and an Ecler Warm2 rotary mixer. Come Thursday to Saturday to catch selectors curated by DJ and record collector Billie-Jean. And that’s just in the music room. In the dining room, former Lene owner Cam Williams, one of Melbourne’s most exciting young chefs, plates up polenta fritters with habanero aioli, baked rigatoni oozing with Bruny Island washed rind cheese, and other memorable yet approachable dishes. – Nick Connellan, Australia editor

Bernie’s, Fitzroy North

Bernie’s earned an audience almost soon as it opened because of its clear purpose to centre the FLINTA* community. I’ve made friends with people I met chicly playing dice in the back garden, and my pre-existing friend group – mostly made up of queer women – was quick to save Bernie’s as a favourite, noting how nice it is to have a space built for us. The team behind the bar knows its stuff, and will help you decide between wines by the glass and cocktails (though you should probably just get the Negroni Bianco). There are no pride flags taped to beer taps, but Bernie’s feels refreshingly queer. – Georgia Mismash, campaign manager

Champagne Video, Fitzroy North

I have a fondness for video stores and an undying love of movie theatres that means Champagne Video hits just where it’s meant to. The St Georges Road bar is unapologetically nostalgic (it’s named after the video store in Seinfeld, after all). It has recreated the feeling of browsing the aisles at Blockbuster with DVDs, from Doctor Zhivago to Bridget Jones’s Baby, lining the walls. The drinks list leans into the theme with cocktails including the Lost in Translation (mezcal, hibiscus-and-ginger tonic, Cointreau, lime and agave) and the Eternal Sunshine (St Germain, gin, lime and cucumber). But what I love most about the bar is its focus on community events such as comedy nights and speed dating, many taking place in the adjoining screening room. That and the fact that they have choc-tops. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food & drink editor

Coil, South Yarra

There are places that are good for starting a night and places that are good for ending one. Coil is both. From 5pm to 9pm, it runs as a standard bar with decent made-to-order cocktails, wine and beer. After 9pm, it switches into club mode, with a rotation of local DJs and international guests making the most of the Tom Danley Synergy Horns, a high-end sound system built for clarity at every corner of the room. The best bit? Phone cameras are covered with stickers, and a no-phones-on-the-dancefloor policy encourages people to use the dancefloor the way it was always meant to be used. – Tri Nguyen, group strategy manager

The Florence, CBD

Pasta until 1am is a big selling point for The Florence, a bar from The Meatball & Wine Bar founder Matteo Bruno right above his 14-year-old Flinders Lane restaurant. But equally compelling are the Negronis. There are five different takes on the cocktail, which is thought to originate from the venue’s namesake city. My lightweight status means I’m particularly fond of the Piccolo Negroni, but the Limoncello Sbagliato (a riff on the Negroni Sbagliato) is the first thing I’ll order once the weather turns around. My favourite part of the venue is the gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows that frame the space beautifully year-round. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food & drink editor

Jacket, Thornbury

“Rapturous” is a strong word, but often it’s the right one to describe audiences at Jacket. This is a place where listening, not talking, is often the main event. Founder and musician Tamer Taşkaya curates a wonderfully diverse program featuring funk, soul, jazz and more. Like Bar Oussou and Bar Open, two spots Taşkaya frequents, it’s another vital space for acts that sit outside the dominant DJ-rock band dichotomy. On a recent Sunday I watched flamenco guitarist Alejandro Florez unfurl an intricate melody while dancer Aya Kitaoji swished her skirts and skilfully pounded a protective, purpose-built timber square with her shoes. (Good thing – the cork floor is gorgeously patterned, one of many brand-new but timeless design details.) The room sat in rapt attention. Not that this is the only way to do Jacket, mind. “Sometimes I’ll go table by table and be like, ‘You don’t have to be quiet – it’s jazz,’” Taşkaya told us when the place opened. – Nick Connellan, Australia editor

Second Hand Dealer, Footscray

When Aaron Donato’s beloved Pie Thief closed, it left an experimental-flavour void in Footscray. But Donato has filled it by transforming the former Trouble in Dreams space next door into a dimly lit, antique-filled bar named after the building’s previous life as a pawnbroker, complete with cosy wooden booths that are practically custom-made for lingering. He has taken his old pie-making philosophy (“What delicious meal can I turn into a pie?”) and applied it to the drinks list. The undisputed drawcard here is the Banh M(artin)i: a wild, 15-versions-in-the-making masterpiece of roast-pork-fat-washed vodka, pâté-infused vodka, buttered vermouth, and lemongrass gin, garnished with coriander oil and a pickled carrot. It’s backed by other inventive sips like the Night-Time Coco Pops and Pandas of the Caribbean – making Second Hand Dealer one of the most exciting new additions to Melbourne’s cocktail bar scene. – Steph Vigilante, head of social media

Triple U, Fitzroy

China is home to some incredible inventive cocktail bars. New Fitzroy bar Triple U – which stands for urban, unique and utopian – aims to bring some of that energy to Melbourne. Its light, balanced drinks draw a crowd largely made up of uni students, who drop in for cocktails with ingredients such as bitter melon, black sesame, maodou (edamame) and pandan. Five variations on the New Orleans-created Ramos Gin Fizz are some of the most visually and texturally pleasing cocktails around. Melbourne has exceptional European-style cocktail bars and I’ll never tire of them, but it’s exciting to see something new hit the scene. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food & drink editor