Less stuffy and more relaxed than its white table-clothed sibling upstairs, Grossi Florentino, Cellar Bar is a place where you can drink and not think while devouring signature dishes straight from the Mediterranean playbook.

Piled-high prosciutto plates, golden-fried whitebait swiped in aioli, spaghetti vongole twirled around your fork – it’s chef David Watson’s no-frills, authentic, soul-warming cooking that’ll do the job inside the timber-panelled dining room in the depths of winter, right through to those balmy summer alfresco sessions around the pavement tables at the top end of Bourke St.

The non-negotiable dessert, the tiramisu, is cut from the tray and one of the rare few dishes in this city that’s inherently Melbourne. A stalwart since 1918, and many moons to come, Cellar Bar holds a firm place in our city’s eating landscape. 

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