Typically Melbourne, an anonymous staircase leads to a rocking pizza restaurant, a cosy bar and a palm-lined rooftop with skyscraper views, adding up to three floors of fun in the CBD.
On Swanston Street, tucked among the regional Asian diners with their constant queues, a dimly lit doorway with white-tiled entry beckons passers-by up a steep flight of stairs.
On the first level of this 2021 arrival you’ll find a ply-walled restaurant with leather booths, shelves lined with bottles, and piping-hot pizzas; on the next level, a bar brimming with bohemian vibes, plus a pool table and assorted kitsch hung above the wood panelling. The fit-out is all about nostalgia and warm, inviting spaces, says venue and bar manager Morgan Cook. “We wanted to make a space where we wanted to go after so many months/years of lockdowns.”
On the rooftop, a cocktail and charcuterie bar with potted palms, coloured fairy lights and humbling views of the skyscraper city (and heated concrete seats – hallelujah!). The great thing about Dom’s? It’s casual. Drop in any time. Conceived as a knock-off bar, it fills the brief handsomely.
Like the menu says, “Good Lambrusco will change the way you view sparkling red wine.” Co-owner Sam Peasnell, a long-time lover of Italy’s fizzy red, gets to showcase his obsession with the perfect pizza wine here. The list offers diversity, from dark fruit to low alcohol, dry to lightly sparkling. (Try the Lini 910 Rosato – a fantastic match with pizza and charcuterie.) While the wines are mostly Italian, there’s also one from Mildura in the northern Riverlands and a wild-ferment from the Adelaide Hills by young-gun winemaker David Caporaletti. Elsewhere the wine list is fun, approachable and affordable, with a strong showing by Victorian and more broadly Australian producers. Dom’s has around 12 wines on pour, plus a list of crafty beers, including cans of its own lager, made by Deeds Brewing in suburban Glen Iris, and a selection of non-alcoholic drinks that taste like the real thing.
The back bar on the middle level serves mostly Australian spirits and the classics, but Dom’s also celebrates Italian amari liqueurs, apéritifs, sherry, vermouth and digestifs. The cocktail list has the standards down pat, but also offers the house’s own creative interpretations such as the inspired citrus-laced Yuzu Negroni and the signature Full Autonomy, a slightly sweet, slightly tart arrangement of Autonomy Distillers’ Davo Plum Aperitivo Bitters and native Australian amaro, lemon and vegan egg white.
Hot pizza and chilled Lambrusco, obviously. The sourdough pizza bases are fermented for three days for extra oomph and topped with all-Australian ingredients. The best-seller is the classic Margherita, followed by the Ghost Pepper Salami with chilli and mango salsa to quell the spice.
“Snacks-wise it’s 100 per cent the Yurrita anchovy-stuffed potato skins – a crisp potato skin filled with whipped goat’s curd, lime, chilli and a delish anchovy,” Cook recommends. “The pumpkin fritto is the underdog.”
Regular pizza specials might include a luxurious arrangement of habanero salami with roasted figs, Stilton cheese and fermented chill, or Italian-leaning sweet-and-sour rhubarb agrodolce with roasted almonds and rich Pedro Ximénez sherry on a creamy roasted-garlic base. Check in with Dom’s Instagram for latest offerings.
Besides regular pizza specials that are always worth dropping by for, on Wednesdays Dom’s offers $15 Margis – that’s 15 bucks for a Margherita pizza and the same for a Margarita. So $30 for a balanced diet. Bargain.
The rooftop licence only goes until 11:00pm, but stay tuned – management is angling for an extension. The Pool Room (middle bar) licence runs until 3:00am. “So it can be a party if the people are keen (and I have the staff),” says Cook.
It’s smart to book on Fridays and Saturdays, especially if you want a place at the pizza tables, but Dom’s always saves space for impromptu walk-ins. Oh, and there’s also a “disco party light button” in the upstairs bathrooms. Apparently it’s a thing.
