With influential venues The Everleigh and Bar Margaux now closed (and sorely missed), and 19-year-old Gerald’s Bar announcing its move from Rathdowne Village to Lygon Street later this year, it feels like something is shifting in Melbourne’s bar scene. It feels like we’re headed for a shake up, and these three soon-to-open bars – which focus on affordability and approachability – are all part of the changing landscape.

Times New Roman

This new venue from Good Times Pasta Bar owners Chelsea Davis and Jarrod Agatanovic is being pitched as a slightly more refined older sister to the rambunctious Fitzroy North hotspot. The focus at Times New Roman, which is expected to open late April, will be comfort, ease and affordability.

“At a lot of wine bars, the food can get complicated. You’re reading a menu and you don’t even know what half the words are. We’re trying not to do that,” Davis told Broadsheet, when we reported on the bar earlier this month.

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Here, pastas will range from $6 to $18; changing wine bar snacks such as cheeses, breads, pickles and tinned fish will be around $6; and the signature peach punch will be $6 a glass. The fit-out consists of largely recycled materials and, with its angel pendants and water fountain in the backyard, is designed to remind you of a Roman bathhouse.

Times New Roman is expected to open in early April at 66 Lygon Street, Brunswick East.

Pendant

Belinda Linton and Luke Kelly have two impressive bar resumes. Both worked at The Everleigh and Linton, who was previously at Congress, currently bartends at Black Pearl, while Kelly, formerly of Mr West is now at Apollo Inn.

Linton and Kelly have talked about opening their own bar for the past eight years, and will finally open the doors to Pendant, in the former Enoteca Zingara space, at the end of April. Pendant will focus equally on beer, wine and cocktails. The aim is to create an inviting space where people can enjoy a familiar drink, or get adventurous and let the bar power couple guide them.

Pendant is expected to open at 334 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, at the end of April.

Melitta Next Door

Husband-and-wife Danielle and Oska Whitehart are the duo behind Hot-Listed Carlton spot Bar Bellamy. Next month, they’ll open a more affordable bar right next door.

“We were trying to think of what that space would be if it was a person. It’s kind of like Bar Bellamy in their early twenties – very fun, going out a bit more, wanting to eat some quick food before maybe going to a gig,” Danielle told Broadsheet in February.

At Melitta, there’ll be pre-batched cocktails with an emphasis on spritzes. The menu will be Mediterranean barbeque and overseen by head chef Lorena Corso of pop-up series Sicilian Smokeout.

Melitta Next Door is expected to open at 160 Rathdowne Street, Carlton in April.

Additional reporting by Alice Volfneuk.