North Melbourne has been my home now for about nine years. When we first moved here, it bore only a superficial resemblance to the suburb I’d worked in 12 or so years before. The Town Hall pub had changed – it was still a bit grungy, but in a comfortable way. The 80s pink and black “El Dorado” on Leveson Street, once a stop on the after-work drinks circuit for cheap pots and massive plates of nachos, was undergoing a transformation into a polished concrete-and-glass bistro/pub. The Court House, which I’d remembered as my alcoholic boss’ last resort when escaping the office and which was always my last resort on the many occasions I had to trawl the pubs to retrieve him, closed soon after we arrived to re-open as a renowned and soon-to-be-hatted restaurant attached to a cosy pub bar.
Since we’ve lived here, there have been more changes. The lovely Libertine opened around the corner, Sosta Cucina took over where a rather uninspired noodle bar once stood, Oskar opened and continues to thrive, Burger Republic – now Urban Burger – covers meat-in-bread cravings, coffee is roasted, pastries are made, and a number of interesting little bars and cafes of all sizes have settled in to the area. Things continue to change, with the newsagent moving (twice) in the past six months, leaving all sorts of possibilities for their vacated premises. I’m sure those vacancies won’t be filled, as I would like, by bookshops or hardware stores, but I’m fairly confident that we’ve reached saturation point with hairdressers so I remain optimistic.
Some things haven’t changed.
Continue reading North Melbourne – the down side
