Hot List Update: Autumn’s Hottest Happy Hours

The Hot List is the definitive guide to Melbourne’s most essential food and drink experiences, updated weekly. Learn more.

This week’s Hot List activity

• Most trending restaurant: Soi 38
• Most trending bar: Caretaker’s Cottage
• Most trending cafe: Patricia

Happy hours to put a smile on your dial

It’s sad that daylight savings is ending soon, but the consolation prize is autumn. And autumn in Melbourne might be the best season of the whole year. The first half usually out-summers summer in terms of nice warm days. Then, after the midway point of the Anzac Day long weekend blowout, the deciduous trees start turning on the orange leaves and layering-lovers get to throw on their big coats and jumpers. Autumn in Melbourne is the season of having your cake and eating it too.

Speaking of eating, this is a fantastic time to get out there and try somewhere new (or just hammer your favourites). There are no more office parties, silly-season shindigs, hen’s nights or buck’s parties clogging up Melbourne’s bars and restaurants. Tables are easier to come by and a lot of top spots – including plenty of Hot-Listed faves – are wheeling out some stellar deals to tempt you away from the couch.

Here are some of the best happy hour deals on The Hot List to try this autumn.

Pre-drinking for pizza

Stop by Rita’s any day of the week between 4pm and 6pm and you’ll get $10 Margaritas, Negronis and spritzes (or $5 Peronis). There’s no way you can sit through that happy hour and not want to stick around for a pizza or a heaped bowl of pasta. Rita’s gets a pizza-primed audience and you get cheap booze. It’s the definition of a win-win.

How to be Parisian in Prahran

Every culture has a name for the first drink of the end of the workday. We have knockoffs, Italians have aperitivo and les francais have their hallowed apéro. Prahran’s Entrecote has a classy rendition of it: head over between 4pm and 6pm for $7.90 glasses of house wine and Kronenbourg lager, or a $14.90 Pampelle spritz. This deal should have a warning label: may induce spontaneous ordering of steak frites.

Late-night oysters and Martinis

The new pier may have been the hottest thing in St Kilda this summer, but autumn should belong to The Walrus. This little spot was one of last year’s best new bars, and it’s growing into a firm local favourite. Even if you’re not from around the bay, The Walrus’s new weekend-only happy hour is worth crossing town for. There are $15 Martinis and Negronis, plus $3 oysters, from 10pm to 11pm. Who doesn’t love a late happy hour?

Pre-dinner Filipino pints

Whenever a restaurant has an upstairs bar, it’s basically a given that you should go to it for a pre- or post-dinner drink (and maybe both). That’s an especially good idea in the case of Askal and Inuman. Make a booking for Askal, and head to Inuman beforehand between 4pm and 6pm for $12 pints and $7 schmiddies. Then, make your way downstairs for chef John Rivera’s excellent Filipino food. It’s the perfect night, all within one building.

Free – and free-flowing – aperitivi snacks

As much as we love a straightforward discounted drinks-style happy hour, it’s always cool when a venue does something different. At Bar Olo’s aperitivo hour, which runs between 4pm and 6pm every night, you’ll be treated to a cavalcade of free aperitivi snacks to enjoy with your drinks. If you’ve been meaning to try Scopri’s younger sibling (and one of our best new bars of 2024), then consider this your official legitimate excuse.

Keralan happy hour seven days a week

Between his Hot-Listed Kolkata Cricket Club and the enduringly excellent Toddy Shop, fans of chef Mischa Tropp are eating well this year. But they can also drink well too, particularly at Fitzroy’s Toddy Shop, which runs a great happy hour every single day of the week. Between 4pm and 6pm, there are cheap Mango Margs, Kingfisher lagers and Gunpowder Shandies. Plus bottles of house wine are 20 per cent off.

You had us at cheap oysters and free olives

Not too far away, Collingwood’s Molly Rose has recently introduced a great way to spend your afternoons towards the end of the week. On Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, between 4pm and 6pm, there’s a range of drinks available for $8 such as a Strawberry Aperitivo Spritz, lagers and hazy beers, pastis on the rocks, and a couple of mini Martinis. Plus there are $3 Pacific oysters and free olives. Sounds like a briny good time.

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