Saint Hotel

Since it opened in St Kilda in 1915, the iconic Saint Hotel has lived a few lives. It played host to a bank, a pub, a nightclub and a Thai restaurant. Today, the destination venue has three distinct spaces in one, with a space for every occasion.

The focal point is Saint Dining, a protein-driven restaurant on the ground floor. It’s dark and moody, filled with leather banquettes and touches of marble and bronze. The kitchen is designed around a Josper grill, which kisses nearly everything on the menu, which might feature Fremantle octopus skewers, to five varieties of steak, to burnt cedarwood ice-cream with slow-roasted apple tartine. Even kingfish crudo (which is Italian for “raw”) is treated with a touch of heat then finished with tomato consommé, dandelion green oil and sea herbs.

Cocktails are a celebration of Australian natives with strawberry gum, peach tea and pepperberry-infused highballs and Negroni spin-offs made with Davidson’s plum liqueur and umeshu.

Adjacent to the restaurant is Saint Bar, a more casual operation that feels like a hybrid gastropub and wine bar. There, you can choose from more than 200 bottles, which you might pair with chargrilled burgers or prawn cutlet katsu sandos in house-baked shokupan.

Upstairs is Bar 54, loosely inspired by the infamous New York nightclub Studio 54. To one end is a light-filled atrium filled with mustard-yellow booths and to the other, a sunny terrace with large windows that’ll open up when the weather warms. Find minimal-intervention wines by the bottle, spritzes on tap and a snack-centric menu of chilled seafood, cheese and charcuterie.

And on the first floor is Stellas, a cocktail and listening bar fitted with custom-built Pit & Giblin speakers (the Australian company behind Waxflower’s setup) and monthly rotating DJs.