Vibe check? Hell yes. Location? Nailed it. Drinks glowing all of the colours of the natty rainbow? You betcha.

Clover is Richmond’s newest bar-slash-bistro brooding with hipster swag.

It’s where you’ll see the South Yarra cool kids thirsty for that alternate lifestyle without committing to a northern suburbs postcode.

Lyndon Kubis, behind the east’s beloved neighbourhood bars The Alps and Toorak Cellars, is having a proper crack at the restaurant thing with mate Charley Snadden-Wilson.

The young chef previously worked at The Moon with Kubis until last year, and since November he’s been flexing his Embla and Etta-gleaned tricks grillside – and southside.

Unlike Kubis’s Collingwood digs, this place is bigger with a woodfire oven and cold room, though it doesn’t stray far from its wine bar roots with a charming space decorated by lead-light windows, exposed brick walls, and a long communal table stretching down the room’s centre.

It’s where you’ll find Sarah Reilly, working the floor and courtyard out the back with tempting pours.

Will it be a splash of bubbly to start, perhaps something spritzy, or vino, because that’s their jam.

Satisfy from a set of solid faves (Adelaide Hills pinot noir, Provence rose), Euro tongue twisters you’ve never heard of (Xarel-lo, Nero Buono, excuse moi?), or something on-brand: a skinsy Piedmont white grippy with funk and freshness. More please.

Clover’s food is still very much geared to a wine bar crowd. It’s underwhelmingly simple for price, and at times, promise. That’s not to say skill, or top-tier produce, isn’t at play but I could easily draw a line between the menu’s “dos” and “do not bothers”.

Do those utterly ripe tomatoes with housemade cheese (a fluffy stracciatella on our visit). The toms so juicy-sweet and shining with just enough salty sparkle, the strach all-encompassing and spread like Philly cream. How wonderfully delicious.

The honey bread? Don’t bother; so fluffy and squidgy you could clean your car with it, with a slight hint of meady sweetness in that last chew. While that herb butter reminds me of the stuff smeared on $1 frozen supermarket garlic bread.

If you can afford it, the fruits de mer ($42) is a go if you strike it rich in the raw seafood lottery. This fish and shellfish platter is built around the fresh and best of the market haul, our catch showing Merimbula’s superstar rock oysters, pickle topped mussels, with moody albacore tuna and shiny kingfish sashimi. Seafood textures were a mix of mush, firm and chewy, though those leaves on the side made for a peppery/ herbaceous upswing.

And a big yes to finding the chocolate ganache buried beneath that dense brown sugar cake studded with crunchy tart plum. Hockey-puck in size, capped with a thick slick of coconut cream it oozes ingenuity I’d hoped for across the board at Clover.

Flame may be its north star, and at times Clover is more fizzle and smoke than sizzle, but it sticks the flight plan with solid bevvies, fun vibe and top snacks in spades.

Related review Pasta cooked to perfection at Al Dente Sapori in Carlton