$15 martinis, midnight spag and Bloody Mary salad. Inside Lygon Street’s new ‘public house’

Daphne, the sophomore opening for Hannah Green – owner of hatted Brunswick East diner Etta – has been created as a chameleon. It’s not a pub or a wine bar or a restaurant. It’s all of the above and more, intended to be a neighbourhood institution.

A few doors down from Etta on Lygon Street, Daphne is what Green calls her “public house”. The 125-seat bar and restaurant is “fun, loose and for you to use as you see fit”, she says. It’s a more easygoing – and economical – experience than what Etta has flourished into.

Designed by IF Architecture (Etta, Cutler, Baker Bleu), Daphne is a fresh face for the space once home to the long-standing Cafe Romantica, but known most recently as Bar Romantica.

“I wanted to pay respect to the site because it was fairly iconic,” Green says. “But I also wanted to bring light in.”

While the original terrazzo floor and popcorn-look vermiculite ceiling remain, the room has been brightened in a big way. “Everything is reflective,” Green says, from the iridescent 3D-printed lightshades to the stainless-steel open kitchen.

New street-side seating flows into a casual front bar where you order at the counter. Beyond: a full-service bistro with clothed tables and a curtained-off private dining room.

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Presiding over the food is Diana Desensi, former head chef of Montalto and the now-closed Saint George, who has a simple motto: “If it hasn’t been done before, we’re not doing it.” But that’s not to say she isn’t putting her own flair and flourishes on familiar dishes.

The same menu runs across the front bar and bistro, featuring a dish Desensi cooked for Green to help her get the gig. It’s a half chicken that’s brined, “dunked in herb butter so the whole thing kind of mummifies”, then roasted to golden perfection in the wood-fire oven before being served with blistered grapes and a salty-sweet agrodolce-like sauce.

‘If it hasn’t been done before, we’re not doing it.’

Daphne chef Diana Desensi

Other highlights include a fermented potato flatbread with mussels escabeche and whipped cod roe, and unusually exciting salads like a colourful cobb and an heirloom tomato medley with all the flavours of a Bloody Mary.

Weekly “neighbourhood nights” each have a different hero item. Go for $15 martinis on Mondays (and get an olive stamp on your loyalty card so your 10th is free), $30 steak with fries on Tuesdays, and $25 handmade pasta on Wednesdays. There’s also a kids’ menu, and a supper menu on Fridays and Saturdays. With last orders at midnight, it appropriately stars a midnight spaghetti jam-packed with anchovies and capers.

As at Etta, the cocktails are a cut above, curated by drinks maverick Sam Peasnell who also lent his expertise to the drinks lists at Barragunda and Dom’s Social Club. His take on the Americano Perfecto (topped with lager instead of the Americano’s usual soda) subs in Guinness, which floats atop the Campari and vermouth for a low-ABV drink that he says tastes like a chocolate negroni.

Sommelier Ashley Boburka’s wine list puts Victoria centre stage, including pinot gris and chilled sangiovese by Yarra Valley winemaker Valentine, both on tap for $10 a glass.

After dinner, the old Bar Romantica sound system cranks up for late-night DJ sets.

Daphne opens today, November 10 at 52-54 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, daphne.melbourne

Open dinner Mon-Sat