The Pickle & The Patty

The Pickle & the Patty has lived a few different lives since opening in 2018, including as a food truck and a now-closed diner in Ascot Vale. Several years later, co-owners Laura Attard and Lyndal Keys found it a permanent home in a light-filled South Melbourne diner. Here, you’ll find their mighty and much-loved American burgers, juicy fried chicken wings and a love for anything pickled right across the menu.

American diners are generally synonymous with 1950s decor. But The Pickle & the Patty has been designed to look and feel timeless – pairing traditional terrazzo floors, old-school sauce bottles and vinyl banquette seating with contemporary tiling and pendant lights.

The menu reflects this, with locally sourced ingredients used to create classic American burgers. Whatever can’t be sourced nearby – like pickles and some sauces – is made in-house and dotted across the menu. While some burgers, such as the OG Cheeseburger, are relatively straightforward, other menu items are more indulgent. The Brady has a mac’n’cheese patty, a potato cake, onion rings, jalapeno, cheese and two types of sauce. The Pickle Monster, meanwhile, makes good use of those house-made pickles: five pickled ingredients bookend crispy bacon and double Angus beef patties from Habbies Howe. Add sides like chicken wings, loaded fries and onion rings for the full diner experience.

You can also order house lemonade with pickle juice, pickle-themed cocktails (like a pickled watermelon G&T) and even pickle-topped sorbet. And for those who love preserved foods as much as Attard and Keys, a jar of dill-fermented hot sauce is waiting for you to take home.