Or if you were at the newly opened Hotel Collingwood for lunch, champagne or espresso martinis seemed to be the drink of choice for many. After 262 days at home, the city was back doing usual Melbourne things on a very unusually warm Melbourne day. Some marked the end of the world’s longest lockdown with a celebratory breakfast or a midnight feast. But all this food writer really wanted was a pub lunch. Nothing screams ‘I didn’t make this at home’ more than that first mouth-scalding hot chip, instantly cured by a sip of crisp, cold beer from the tap. Or even a hulking beef patty with brilliant smoky char, jammed between a toasted milk bun that hasn’t gone soggy in the takeaway bag.In lockdown, you realise very quickly recreating a simple chicken parma at home isn’t easy work. There’s a gift (ahem, a commercial deep fryer) to getting that golden-crumb, oozy-cheese and sweet tomato sauce ratio just right. All of these little things wouldn’t mean as much if it weren’t for those monotonous, yet important, days at home. Julien Moussi’s Only Hospitality Group took over the old Robert Burns Hotel in July, with plans to re-open in August. That never happened. Yesterday was the Smith St pub’s first proper day of trade and you wouldn’t have noticed. The service was seamless, even with the extra step of checking-in and vax-passport flashing. Impressively, and surprisingly, Melbourne was on its best behaviour. Every diner was masked and had their phone’s at the ready to be let in through the pub’s nightclub-style, black velvet rope entrance. Whenever you do venture out, know that you’ve earned it. Keep up the good work Melbourne, because in a city as resilient as ours, nothing tastes as good as freedom feels. Well, maybe a beer on tap.
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