A vision of retro opulence, Shane Delia’s latest venue earns its Levantine-accented place in Melbourne’s cocktail bar canon.

Maha, meet Jayda. Shane Delia’s august Middle Eastern flagship restaurant has a bouncing new sibling right next door – and not only is it putting a gerrymander on Bond St, it’s giving double the reason to head down this inauspicious looking laneway.

Jayda’s red awning with its classic New York Copacabana vibes looks like it’s been there for yonks, but its arrival heralds Delia’s takeover of a space he’s long coveted. Quite rightly.

Step inside and you’re greeted with the swoon-worthy bone structure of a Czech supermodel, helped along by a retro makeover that takes the 1950s and ’60s as its spirit guide and flattering lighting as a given (reading menus by iPhone light is a small price to pay for the faux Botox).

The front room is all deliberately distressed walls and red orb lamps, high top tables and the gorgeously sinuous lines of a green marble bar; or step through the sexy little slip of an archway into a lounge area where jewel-toned velvet sets its own luxe agenda.

Ignore the irony that Jayda is named after the chef’s 13-year-old daughter and go straight for a vibrant cocktail list. Award-garlanded drink gunslinger Orlando Marzo proves his mettle with a list distilling the venue’s intent into liquid form: his Strawberry Cream Negroni evokes the Levant through rosehip, blackberry leaves and dehydrated yoghurt, while a margarita gets its nectar on with yuzu and green tea spirit balanced with the zing of an Aleppo chilli salt rim.

The wine list also has plenty to keep you entertained. A sophisticated collection of 80-odd bottles, it’s certainly not cheap and (at least on our visit) there was no obvious expertise on the floor. But it’s a chance to expand your drinking horizons with benchmark locals and internationals as well as to explore why the likes of Lebanon’s Chateau Masar has reached cult-like status.

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Jayda’s not one of those places haunting the grey zone between bar and restaurant. It’s a bar, no question. Yet its snack-happy menu can easily constitute a full meal, so thoughts don’t turn longingly to Maha’s slow roasted lamb shoulder.

There’s no need when there’s the “after-service sandwich”, the Maha staff meal gone legit using those crisp, bottom-of-the-pan meat nubbles and wrapping them in thick flaky pastry that soaks up the dip into lamby jus – excellent fun (and slightly messy, but what kind of monster would complain?). For those kicking on late, it’s a welcome addition to Melbourne’s night owl canon, nipping at the heels of Arlechin’s midnight spaghetti and Bar Margaux’s L’Américain cheeseburger.

There’s more meaty heft in a pickle stick-speared basturma toastie oozing mild and sweet kasseri cheese, the sort of thing that could single-handedly ballast a night’s drinking.

On the dainty side of the ledger you’ll find a cured kingfish on a taramasalata shmear in a super-crisp tartlet shell, and salmon roe-dabbed tuna kibbeh to wrap in a perilla leaf, and spicy lamb cigars.

It’s the essence of good snacking without detracting from the dazzle of the drinks. Maha who? Step aside, there’s a new Delia in town.

Related story: Shane Delia’s glam new cocktail bar Jayda to open in Melbourne this spring