So you know and love Lulie Tavern, the American beer hall and dive bar where an after-midnight vibe squelches any notion of day and night outside its neon-lit walls? In news just in, it’s delivered a fresh chapter in the form of a rooftop bar that’s the sun-drenched yang to Lulie’s yin.

Running with a desert theme and throwing in a cactus novelty drink for good measure, Full Moon Fever is a bar rocking the conviction of its fit-out.

Channelling a desert pitstop in spitting distance of Joshua Tree National Park, it goes the full Ennio Morricone with a red brick bar set against a rock wall backdrop and plenty of 1970s-style timber panelling.

Expect cacti. There’s even a faux campsite where butterfly chairs and rough-hewn logs set in front of a wood stove seem to be waiting for grizzled old timers to start their yarning, while a retractable awning laughs in the face of Melbourne’s changeable weather.

Hovering over the patch of Johnston Street near Victoria Park train station that has reinvented itself from ghost town to ersatz Brooklyn in a few short years, Full Moon Fever has ruthlessly hit the pleasure receptors of every tattooed barber’s apprentice within a 10-kilometre radius – and their dogs, who seem to be enjoying the place as much as their owners.

The place is rammed, but fight your way to the bar for a classic and twisted classic cocktails. There’s a Tommy’s margarita, the drink of the season thanks to its addictive agave lusciousness, and a Dazed and Confused that rocks a combo of mezcal and Mexican chilli liqueur and with the bitter lick of grapefruit.

That cactus cocktail – served in a cactus-shaped keg with salt-rimmed glasses for DIY action – sticks to the theme, all fizzy and bright with tequila, blood orange and prosecco. At three litres, you’ll need a few friends along for the ride.

The food isn’t going to set the world on fire, but it keeps drinkers fuelled and happy. Burgers, mostly, from a copyright-bending Whopper zinging with fresh salad onion crunch to a vegan fried chicken number doing a good masquerade of the real thing under its gloopy sauciness.

Or skip the burger and mainline carbs in the form of thick salty chips with gravy and spring onions.

Service? You’ll order at the bar and grab a number on stick. It’s not perfect but it suits the freewheeling spirit of the place. Like Lulie it’s a bar to be enjoyed at a high volume, with a craft tin in hand if you’re not the cocktail kind.

It’s a fun addition to what’s become the hottest block in the inner north. The drinks are great, the vibe is high, and the stage is set for a spaghetti western Melbourne summer.

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