North Fitzroy Arms

Is a new golden age of Melbourne pubs upon us? There are some promising signs out there right now. There was a time when refurbs and new management for old pubs spelled doom, with unsympathetic renovations and updates often scraping away everything that made the venues appealing in the first place. But a new wave of reopenings has demonstrated that you can freshen things up, give them a coat of paint, sharpen up the food and most especially the drinks without getting away from the essential pubbiness of the pub. It can be a place for a casual beer, a game of pool, a spot to catch up with friends or watch a game without thinking too hard about it all. But it can also do all those things while offering more interesting things to drink and eat, and maybe a little more comfort and polish as well. 

The North Fitzroy Arms is a prime example of a pub that. In the most recent incarnation of its 150-year lifespan, it was not particularly special – a back-street Fitzroy North local in a part of the neighbourhood quite rich in back-street locals – but, with a little bit of care put into its restoration, it has become the sort of spot that pulls people from near and far. The front bar is still a very classic front bar, Carlton and Stella on tap, the ’Pies and the Baggers on the TV, ready for a ruckus. There’s tables on the street for the drinks-with-the-dog crowd, plus a pretty good beer garden.

It’s the restaurant bit where the reboot is at its most noticeable. The new owners have recruited Barney Cohen, a chef whose most recent port of call was the excellent Rathdowne Street newie Bar Bellamy. And they’ve signed a big gun on the drinks in the form of Hayley McCarthy, who was until recently the sommelier at Smith Street fine-diner Ides. Now the place is buzzing like it hasn’t in decades.

Chef Barney’s food is fun and delicious. The “retired dairy cow cheeseburger” is one of the best in its class, and if the idea of “retiring” dairy cows is not your thing, there is also joy in the vegan version as well. You want a pie floater? Barney makes his with beef cheek braised in stout. Fish and chips? How about garfish and chips? Do not, under any circumstances, miss the broccoli and Comté croquettes if they’re on; they are god’s gift to cheese bombs. The crumbed pork cutlet with fennel and radish slaw and mustard is another example of that “classic but not highbrow” brief being nailed to a tee yet again.

You might’ve heard a few grumbles about the size of some of the serves (you can’t be anything but generous with gravy if you have to pay extra for a jug of it, after all), but the focus is on keeping prices approachable, and that’s admirable.