Well this was all just a little bit fancy! Or maybe it was just a bit fancy for this Geelong-born-and-raised gal. Regardless, I liked Bar Liberty and I liked it a lot. After one or two cocktails at Panama, I strutted down to Bar Liberty to find my dining companion waiting with a bottle of deliciously salty wine (seriously) in a moody back corner of this relatively new venue. With a menu designed to share, we indulged in all of the things. We started with the salt and pepper vegetables, which were incredibly delicious and entirely moan-worthy. They were deep-fried (but not too much, and in a classy way, y'know?) and very, VERY salty. We next tried the Burrata with Soured Cucumber (watch my video - it was crazy good and very gooey.) We also knocked back the Fried Potato & Fermented Chilli and come carpaccio. While I am definitely more of a loner when it comes to food (I'm not a huge sharer, I like a dish to myself) I would definitely recommend Bar Liberty for a fancy night out with your parents or even a date with someone you're trying to impress. There are lots of cosy corners for intimate conversations. read more

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Melbourne is suddenly awash with small-ish venues serving up a dainty menu of punchy shared plates and massive drinks lists. I'm glad because it's my favourite way to dine and I love being able to pore over a drinks list while I eat and drink. Bar Liberty is only a week old, taking up the awkward shaped building that was once home to La Condessa. This part of Johnston Street in Fitzroy was pretty dead for a while but it feels like it might become the new "it" street once Smith and Brunswick fill up to the rafters. It's very much welcome for those who live nearby. The experience here at Liberty is a good one, and in time I think it will be great. There's a short menu of delicious things to eat, though items are on the pricier side and I wish there was a little more cohesion in the dishes. Tomato and plum salad, beef tartare and pippies with XO were all tasty but they didn't really work well in terms of progression through the meal. I felt like we were jumping all over the world, rather than staying in one particular region. Though perhaps that's the point here at Liberty? The drinks list embraces everything from weird and funky beers, boutique spirits, cold drip coffee and even house made kefir on top of an eclectic mix of wines. I don't know if this means they're trying to be all things to all people, or if they're taking a literal approach with their name. It's an interesting and exciting concept and there's lots of fun surprises to be had, but think of this more of a rollercoaster ride of tastes and textures, rather than a comforting embrace of food and wine. Pro tip: sit in the front bar to enjoy the drinks trolley display. read more

Bar Liberty - Pippies with XO - Wine Bars Near Me - Fitzroy, VIC

Sometimes I'm a foodie, sometimes I eat rubbish. Dinner at Bar Liberty was one of the places where I put my foodie hat back on and my god was I happy to. I loved the layout. You walk into the venue and there's a corner table on your left. You walk into what I thought was the main dining area and are greeted with tables and a bar. We were guided through to a room behind the bar which had three or four tables in it. I felt like we'd been whisked away from the world, it was great. We were given the air of being in the most intimate restaurant in the world, yet we were in the middle of one of the most buzzing parts of Melbourne. We sat down in the house come restaurant and I was greeted by a crazy glass of wine that one of my friends has ordered. It reminded me of a sherry combined with an orange wine. Weird, I know, but it was good. Oiliness is not something I usually enjoy, but it worked so well in this instance. We asked the waiter for some food recommendations and we went with a salt and pepper vegetables, beef tartare, a cheese dish, roasted pumpkin and roasted potatoes with smoked chilli. The salt and pepper vegetables were battered in a gluten free batter and the almost ridiculous level of S&P worked in a way I wasn't expecting (it also worked really well with the wine!). The beef was accompanied by gluten-free crisps and was succulent, juicy and jam packed with flavour. The roast pumpkin was my favourite dish of the night. It was covered in different flavours and textures and melted away. I combined it with the chilli potatoes and I was in vegetable heaven! Our waiter is a known and highly experienced sommelier and the glass of rose he recommended to me after the meal tasted like the only step forward I could have taken after the crazy wine and the food we'd eaten. I was in a happy place. read more

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It's time for everyone's favourite game; "New venue, throw the dice." Basically it works like this; you're stuck in a conundrum of where to go because there a six new places you want to try. Solution; write six venues down on pieces of paper then turn them over to the blank side and get someone else to write a number from 1-6 on each slip. This creates some limited form of random choice. Leave the paper slips number side up, (that your friend has written on) but venue side down on the table, roll the die and pick the winning (paper) number and turn over. This aside Bar liberty is small, cosy, with a refined wine list and a really excellent house made Vermouth. It can get a little noisy but is in pretty good keeping with some of the other bigger venues around. I didn't really venture into the food options, but the wine drinking was fantastic. Nothing new to note, but they have one of those splendorous drinks globe trolley, which always reminds me of high society, an passage of time long since passed, or a fancy way of being a closet alcoholic in years gone by. Great for quiet drinks. read more

Bar Liberty was our last dinner in Melbourne, and we showed up a bit early as our flight was in the evening, and we didn't want to cut it too close on timing. Even though our original reservation was later, we walked in as soon as it opened at 5 PM, and we were able to get seated right away, with the caveat that we needed to be done by 7 PM given the existing reservations. The entrance of Bar Liberty can be easy to miss - as well as the shop itself; the sign on Johnston has a graffiti-styled 'LIBERTY' scrawled over a sign denoting the location of a taqueria, and the actual entrance is on the side road across from a gorgeous graffiti mural. Once you step in, this wine bar has a bit of a feel of a diner mixed in with a bar. It's a little retro chic, which is sort of how I felt about a lot of places while we wandered through Fitzroy, but I like the unpretentious nature of the spot, and I did like the old-fashioned sign that had various inspirations for the restaurant listed one by one (nice to recognize some American influences on it). Service was good; we went with the tasting menu, but the dishes were brought out at a nice pace that balanced enjoying the meal with our need to vacate the table at a certain time. There's a good selection of wines, but we stuck with individual drinks, and I do have to say my cocktails were quite delicious, as well as being memorable for how they were served - the mixing was done and bottled into a small jar, which was then poured in the glass at the table. I suppose that's a very precise way to ensure the drinks come out as they should! One can order a la carte here if desired, but we ended up going with the tasting menu (chef's choice), as there were plenty of things that looked good, and we decided to pass the buck on making the hard choices. That said, of the 6-7 courses we got, I don't think there's one I can say that I did not enjoy wholeheartedly. The mussel dip on a very thin potato chip was a nice, relatively light way to start out, and the sourdough bread served to share with the table was quite hearty and very well-prepared. Next up were two tartares - a very delicious fresh trout tartare served with a generous topping of snap peas on top; overall, this was a very fresh and fulfilling dish that is one of the best seafood tartares I've had. The beef tartare was also quite good, and it is one of the few spots we have been to that also gave the beef a light sear on one side, giving it a bit of the crispiness (and appearance) you would find on a burger. Definitely unique, and if anything, cooking it a bit brings out a little bit more of the flavor as well. The pasta was a cacio e pepe; I really enjoyed the pasta preparation - properly al dente - and I enjoyed the generous loads of freshly cracked black pepper, but the salt could have been dialed back a smidge. Still quite good nonetheless, particularly for a spot not professing to be focused primarily on Italian cuisine. The main was the excellent flank steak, which was cooked to perfection - each slice of steak basically shredded itself - and the fried potatoes it came with were fried just the right amount, and the mayo gave it a bit more of flavorful (if fatty) finish without being too dense. The meal closed out with the yogurt ice cream and watermelon granita, with the latter being presented very much like the tartares earlier in the meal - so underneath the ice cream. A nice, summery way to close out dinner. I really enjoyed the ambiance of Bar Liberty, but I also enjoyed the excellence and casualness of the food that was served here. At A$60 per person, I definitely felt like we got a bargain given how good the food was (although we made it up on the drinks a little - the cocktails aren't that cheap). Nonetheless, on a relative basis, this was definitely the best dinner we had in Melbourne, and I wouldn't hesitate to come back and visit next time I am around this part of the world. read more

Had a fantastic night here. Great minimalist decor, excellent, highly professional staff and a range of food and drinks worth exploring. For a fairly conservative diner, I found the food was a great balance between trying something new and different without being too extreme. This visit I didn't venture to the wines or spirits (and consequently I probably missed the best part of this place) but I found a fantastic range of beers to explore. Staff are very friendly and knowledgeable and offered perfect suggestions. read more

Rotating gin and tonics and delish food. I had an applewood gin (from Australia) and east imperial tonic (NZ). Smallish food menu but everything sounded great! We had the flat bread with onion chutney - super tasty. read more

Dope wine menu. Stupendous grub. Great music the whole time I was there. Food menu is small but everything we tried was solid

Sat there for 15 mins with 3 staff talking to the "mates" that came in but no service for us Not even eye contact Walked out and 50 m to Rochester with great service and drinks straight away read more