APOLLO INN, MELBOURNE REVIEW - EMMA BREHENY FOR GOOD FOOD
By Emma Breheny for Good Food, 19th June 2023
Unless you’ve been in Capri or ignoring Instagram for the past week, you’ll probably know that Andrew McConnell’s Trader House team has opened a new venue in Melbourne that looks every bit as special as its last venture, Gimlet. That’s partly true. But Apollo Inn is unquestionably a bar, and it’s definitely not built in the same grand proportions as Gimlet.
It’s an intimate space (only 28 seats, but it feels more like 10), full of elegant details such as embossed paper coasters and pleated shades on tiny table lamps, although nothing feels excessive.
From outside, it looks like an old office building, its foyer fairly nondescript apart from a pair of stately double doors covered in studded caramel-coloured leather. Push through them and you’ll enter another hallway, this one shadowy and carpeted, its timber-panelled walls inset with several small vintage watercolours, and shelves on which to rest a drink or an elbow.
A heavy velvet curtain marks the threshold of the bar. It all feels a little like you’re about to enter a bar in a David Lynch film.
Once inside, the cocoon-like feeling continues as you get lost in a world of tiny crystal glasses, dark stone surfaces and not a peep audible from the street outside.
What to eat
Finally, a bar that truly wants to just be a bar! About 10 bar snacks (and they are truly snacks) are on offer, from potato chips with bowls of dip, to nuts roasted in chilli, smoked paprika and honey.
Do not pass go without collecting a crunchy finger of Baker Bleu baguette, toasted, spread with sobrasada and topped with deeply pink diced tuna. The meaty spread brings a gentle warmth, which offsets the sweet flesh of the raw tuna. This is surf and turf you can get behind.
If animals don’t cut it for your snack attack, don’t fret. There’s more bready goodness in the form of potato focaccia. The spongy soldiers are embellished with lightly burnished tater slices for the full carb-on-carb experience.
Light relief comes by way of scallops (right now, from Abrolhos Island) served raw in the shell, vinegar made with cara cara orange providing a delicate acidity. Need more twang? A tiny gold-topped bottle of the vinegar is delivered to the table along with a silver stand of shellfish on a bed of ice.
What to drink
The dirty martini, one of four on offer.
Cocktails are the go. There are four martinis alone on offer, with enough variation to keep things interesting – a splash of cucumber brine in the Gibson for example. But the rest of the list showcases old-school drinks, including some you haven’t already seen at every bar around town.
Try the coral-coloured Lucien Gaudin, which mutes the bitterness of a negroni by using house-made marnier. One of these on a hot day (whenever they return) will set you right. The smokier, mezcal-fuelled Pinky Gonzales, a Tiki classic crowned with mint leaves, brings a playful edge to all the grown-up booze being imbibed.
Who to go with
Slip behind the curtain with a date you’re determined to wow. It’s a bar built for nights when you’re wearing your best low-key luxe shirt or shoes. Don’t pile in here with five mates after a boozy dinner. And think twice about a visit with a colleague who you plan to gossip with – unless you want the whole bar to hear.
What’s on the speakers
Menahan Street Band and other smooth jazz-funk tracks that add to the sumptuous atmosphere.
Best seat
Without question, it’s the horseshoe booth set into the archway right at the back of the room. It’s semi-private yet also offers a fantastic perch from which to watch the whole room and the jacketed bartenders do their thing. If that’s occupied, a serpentine leather booth, in dark brown, stretches across one wall, while the smooth-edged bar is absolutely built for sitting at.
Our favourite detail
It’s a close tie between the leather doors, which look like a giant luxury accessory, and the light fittings: smoke-coloured plates of geometric glass stacked five deep to look like a spacecraft. They’re a breath of ’80s style in a space that feels very Old World.
Pro tip
This could be one of the city’s most popular bars over winter, such is the McConnell effect. It’s true that they’re taking reservations, which might seem strange for a bar, but about half the space is set aside for walk-ins. Soon, the bar will be opening earlier on Fridays (from 3pm). A quick visit might be the perfect full stop to a long lunch.
