It’s been the year of the neighbourhood bistro, and this truly versatile venue stands out

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It’s been a fantastic year for new restaurants in Victoria, with a return to ambition and swagger and fun. But 2025 has also been a great year for the kind of business that perhaps goes further towards making this an exciting and vibrant and delicious place to live: the neighbourhood bistro.

Brunswick East, in particular, has had a boom in bars, burgers and casual spots that serve the area’s fun-seeking but value-minded residents. Bar Elsie, which started in May as a coffee shop while a full-service bar and restaurant took shape, is a fine example of the strengths of this new era for Brunswick dining.

The project is thanks to a couple of hospitality veterans from Sydney, Brett and Susie Pritchard, with French chef Edmee Driez (formerly of Three Blue Ducks at Nimbo Fork Lodge) in the kitchen.

It’s located in the cavernous space that was most recently occupied by Alchemy Brewing. This kind of wide-open venue is a tricky proposition. The pros are that it has immediate dramatic appeal, that you can be flexible with layout and purpose, and that you aren’t limited in terms of what kinds of service will fit in the space. The cons are that it’s much harder to create a sense of revelry (especially on slow nights), that it’s hard to heat and cool, and sound issues abound. It can easily feel impersonal, like an aeroplane hangar.

While Elsie hardly feels intimate, the Pritchards have set up the large space smartly. There’s a bar in the centre of the room, lots of seating inside and out for casual drinking and snacks, and a dining area with table service that’s lined in warm wood and decorated with vintage prints. Ceiling panels manage the noise, and it seems like this place might actually achieve what so many neighbourhood spots set out to, which is to be truly versatile – a place for a coffee, a cocktail and bowl of chips, or a full meal.

At Bar Elsie − which, since October, spans cafe, bar and restaurant − that means keeping things deceptively simple. The cocktails are classic – Daiquiri, margarita, martini, etc – and all done incredibly well, served in straightforward glassware by a young staff who seem genuinely lovely and without an ounce of pretence.

There are only a few wines on the list − five or fewer in each category − but what’s there is mostly French, super affordable and the kind that you could drink happily every day. It’s also appropriate for the food, which sticks to the French but approachable playbook.

Driez is cooking the type of dishes you might find at a charming country French cafe – not too fancy, based on the produce of the day and tried and true recipes.

There’s a rustic, chunky ham hock terrine, served with crusty bread and sauce ravigote, a Dijon mustard-tinged, tangy, creamy piece of work that gives the meat a luscious partner in crime.

Charred hispi cabbage comes swimming in butter that’s lightly imbued with fennel and orange, and sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts.

Clams with chorizo, white beans, garlic and parsley would make a lovely light dinner at the bar with a glass of cold white wine. There’s a lot on this menu that lends itself to that kind of quiet indulgence.

Swordfish is cooked to a pink meatiness, avoiding the overcooking that so often beleaguers this fish, supported by lashings of tarragon butter and a generous serving of rainbow chard, along with salt and vinegar potato crisps.

Gnocchi is soft and smothered in peas that have been cooked just long enough to fall into a smoosh, but not long enough to lose their vibrancy.

There are three desserts and it’s hard not to order them all. But if I had to choose, I’d go for the ricotta doughnuts with chilli sugar and blood orange curd. The mandarin frangipane tart is a close second, though, smeared with a cumin ganache that makes me wonder why cumin isn’t used more often in sweet cookery.

It’s hard at this time of year not to look back and make grand proclamations, to celebrate the shiny newcomers that might gain international attention. But Bar Elsie is a different kind of exciting – it’s a place that you could go multiple times a week for coffee and drinks and dinner, where the people are friendly and the wine is good and the food is wonderfully, exactly what it needs to be.

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