Where Chefs Eat: The Pub Steak Night Masses Bagels Founders Carmen Newton and Jack Muir-Rigby Love

Hot Listed Masses Bagels drew lines at Carlton Farmers Market for its sourdough bagel tartines topped with local produce, including green tomatoes, persimmons and blood orange. Founders Carmen Newton and Jack Muir-Rigby moved their operation to a permanent shop in Collingwood in early 2025, transporting the queue and the wild-fermented bakes.

When they’re not running the bakery, the couple can be found eating around town. “We tend to share everything because we like trying a bit of everything!” Muir-Rigby says. We caught up with Newton and Muir-Rigby to find out where (and what) they’ve been eating in Melbourne lately.

Favourite bakery
Newton: Iris is local to us and one of our favourite places to visit on a day off. We love the feel of the space and the openness of the operation. Everything is always delicious, but we usually order the ham ficelle and the seasonal danish – currently the pear one – and share them between us. The breakfast plate is also always really good.

Go-to breakfast spot
Muir-Rigby: We live in Brunswick East, so lately we’ve been spending quite a bit of time at Lunar by Hikari. We love the food as well as the matcha and coffee. We usually order the udon noodle soup and the prawn sandwich and share both of them.

Best place for a drink and snacks
Newton: I’ve recently discovered Le Pub in the CBD and have already become a big fan. The food and drinks we had were really great, and I especially loved sitting at the bar and soaking up the atmosphere. I’m looking forward to going back.

Date-night recommendation
Newton: Tuesday at Marquis of Lorne for steak night and sitting at the bar has become mine and Jack’s weekly date night. We actually had our first date there 10 years ago too, so it’s a bit of a full-circle moment every week.

Favourite ice-cream or gelato spot
Muir-Rigby: Luther’s Scoops. I always get the banoffee pie scoop, usually paired with the rhubarb custard pie on top.

Special-occasion spot
Newton: About Time Bathhouse in Torquay to relax, and then dinner at Harriot – I absolutely love this place! The service is amazing, they have some of the best wines in the city and the food is beautiful and executed really well.

Best banh mi in Melbourne
Muir-Rigby: I frequent Smith Street N Lee for their tofu banh mi biweekly.

Best place to eat with a big group
Muir-Rigby: We like going to Red Cliff on Queen Street. They have Sichuan and Hunan food, huge servings and everything we’ve tried on the menu is delicious, especially the pickled fish soup and the yabby noodles.

Favourite dessert in Melbourne
Muir-Rigby: Sporting Club apple pie, always.

Best place to solo dine
Newton: Good Days. It’s fast, consistent and always a good option. And I love that you can sit at the bar. Everything they do is great, and my most common order is the tofu broken rice, although I’ve worked my way through pretty much the whole menu and have no notes. Their nitro iced teas are also incredible, especially the rhubarb and oolong one – probably my favourite they’ve done.

Best bread
Muir-Rigby: This is a hard one because both Carmen and I literally spend our weekends going to different bakeries and we love so many different places for different reasons. Akimbo is amazing, and we really like the To Be Frank focaccia. Another standout is Embla’s woodfired sourdough and seasonal butter.

Best coffee
Newton: We’re pretty spoilt for choice. I’m obsessed with coffee and easily have four or five a day. For milk coffee, I’ve recently been really enjoying Cafe Tomi, and for filter coffee I’ve been going to our newer local spot Catalogue Coffee on my days off. They’re always really knowledgeable about their whole menu, often handing out samples to try, and I usually end up having really nice chats with the staff there. Jack’s fave coffee of all time is an oat flat white at Tortoise Espresso in Castlemaine.

Melbourne restaurant you wish could come back for a night?
Muir-Rigby: Ramblr is a bit of a special one for us, we had so many good nights there, and some of the best chefs came through that kitchen at the time. The food felt really exciting then, and it definitely left a mark.

Venue you’ve visited the most over the years
Newton: We’re creatures of habit and get obsessed with places. Probably in the past year it would be Bahama Gold x Da Paolo Pizza and The Sporting Club.

Most underrated restaurant in Melbourne:
Muir-Rigby: A friend introduced me to Khabbay in Carlton and gave us an ordering list. It’s just really really delicious Pakistani Indian food. All the charcoal meats and curry are so full of flavour, you can also get it delivered which I have done a few times. Some dishes on our friend’s list: chicken achari, chilli paneer and garlic naan.

Favourite regional restaurant
Muir-Rigby: Not a restaurant but I love Table Records in Castlemaine, they have great snacks, drinks and vinyl spinning.

Bucket list restaurant
Newton: I really want to eat at Chae, but am yet to have luck with the lottery system, fingers crossed.