What happens when two bartenders open a restaurant?
At 98 Lygon, you get old school hospo, cocktails, and classic fare, writes Fred Siggins.
Drinking Melbourne is the new weekly newsletter from drinks writer Fred Siggins, unpacking what’s happening in Melbourne’s bars (and what you can learn from them), sent every Tuesday to your inbox. Get on the list here.
I’d like to start by saying it’s an honour to be taking over this newsletter from my incomparable wife Cara Devine as her career enters a new chapter (more on that to come). After years writing mostly about spirits and cocktail trends, it’s wonderful to be back on the beat writing about Melbourne’s incredibly dynamic hospitality scene, bringing you stories of new and exciting venues and the people behind them, as well as exploring established joints and their influence on the culture of my delicious hometown.
As a proud Melbourne boy, it makes sense that my first newsletter for Boothby is about a Lygon Street venue. I’ve literally been dining out on this stretch of hallowed hospo ground since the early 80s. I had my first slice of pizza here, my first lick of gelato, my first whiff of espresso. Home to many of Australia’s oldest wine bars, restaurants and cafes, in so many ways this is the street that taught Melbourne, and by extension me, how to eat and drink, and with great venues both classic and avant garde, it’s still a wonderful place to do so.
98 Lygon St. is the newest addition to the booming hospitality hub of Brunswick East, about a click north of the classic Carlton strip that made Melbourne famous for food and drink. Up here, there are fewer tourists and less old-school Italian. It’s more of a neighbourhood vibe with a good mix of older home owners and younger, trendier renters posting up at the many great venues. 98 Lygon leans hard into that community feeling with old-school hospitality, classic fare and a flexible offering that works any day of the week.
Occupying the space most recently inhabited by Maggie’s (RIP), 98 Lygon is primarily a restaurant, albeit one owned and operated by career bartenders. Owners Ben Clark and Simon Aukett both have long and storied careers working in some of London’s most prestigious cocktail institutions like Rumpus Room at the Mondrian Hotel and The Zetter Townhouse.
Much of what this area offers is either Italian, pub fare, or modern Aussie paired with natty wines and indie vinyl. 98 Lygon seeks to fill the gap of easy-going, French-inspired brasserie food backed up by a list of fun original and lesser known classic cocktails and a cracking list of old-world style wines.
“Before we opened, we spent a lot of time on the street looking at various places,” says Clark. “You’ve got Old Palm which focuses on open-flame cooking and new wave wines, Waxflower is all about the music, so we needed to do something different. What we offer sits nicely in that French/Euro style, classic and comforting. You can just pop in on a weeknight for a glass of wine and a steak and chips, or settle in for three courses, and you’ll never walk away hungry.”
The double shopfront venue hasn’t changed much in layout since Maggie’s moved out, but the space is a bit brighter and simpler now, with white-clothed tables in the dining room and low, loungy sofas in pink and olive green velvet in the bar area. It’s a great place to sit with a glass of Holm Oak arneis from Tassie and tuck into the signature leek tart tatin, the chewy pastry and caramelised leeks melting into each other with savoury-sweet joy.
98 Lygon also takes inspiration from the restaurants of London and New York that have made a name for themselves in the bar scene thanks to cocktail programs that punch well above their weight. And Aukett is a bartender through and through, heavily-tatted, hawaiian shirt clad and always happy to chat.
“There’s not a lot of cocktail focused venues in this area outside of the realm of your standard restaurant classic,” he says, so they wanted to go a little harder. Here the cocktail list includes both the serious and culinary, like a beetroot and blackcurrant Americano, and the silly and fun, like peanut-butter fat-washed Fernet & Coke, served on tap charged with nitro. It’s bartender bait in a glass.
“I’ve been making drinks for long enough that I know it doesn’t have to be too serious,” says Aukett. “As long as it’s delicious, it can also be fun. The experience is supposed to be frivolous and light hearted.” And while certain drinks on this list do pair well with food, like the Pomodoro with amontillado sherry and tomato water, for Aukett it’s more about moving people through the evening, from pre-dinner cocktails at the bar, to wine with food, to a relaxing digestif on the couch with dessert, unrushed and unpretentious.
98 Lygon is also an example of one of my favourite Melbourne hospo trends of recent years: the genre-defying venue. These days, a place doesn’t have to just be a restaurant, or wine bar, or a cocktail joint. It can be all of the above.
It’s time to kick off the Victorian leg of the Boothby Best Bars awards program for 2025 — get your nomination in at the link below; nominations close Thursday 31 July.
Sam Bygrave
Around The Bars
- The Drink Victorian Tasting is on again at Marvel Stadium on Monday the 28th. It’s a great chance to meet over 200 spirits, wine and beer producers and taste their wares, and it’s free to attend for hospo industry folks. Register for tickets here.
- Burdekin Rum & Marionette Liqueur are teaming up for a wee cocktail comp on Monday the 28th at Union Electric. The theme is Winter Tropicalia and the drink must contain both Burdekin and Marionette. Send your drink idea to Nick@marionette.com.au — just a recipe — and if selected you’ll get to make your drink on the day with $1,000 worth of prizes up for grabs.
- On Thursday, 31st July, Molly Rose Brewery is hosting the grand final of their Beer of the Burbs competition that saw five different venues create signature beers to represent their suburbs. $25 gets you a 150ml tasting of each beer and a chance to vote, and there will be a special drinks menu plus a Chook Shop Pop-up in the kitchen. More info and table bookings here.
- Melbourne's dedicated rye whiskey distillery, The Gospel, is celebrating Rye July with a Distillery Open Day at The Gospel on July 26th. The day will include tours, tastings, and a rare chance to taste and bottle straight from the cask, with two special cask releases to choose from. Tickets to the Open Day are free while deeper experiences like cask tastings and bottle-your-own release experiences can be purchased here.