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Growing up in Melbourne, I always loved Lunar New Year. I remember being both overwhelmed and delighted by the firecrackers, the lion dances, the intoxicating smells emanating from the restaurants of Chinatown and the vibrance of the red and gold decorations. And after nearly two centuries of Chinese influence on Melbourne’s hospitality landscape, in 2026 the flavours and fanfare of this wonderful festival are more diverse and engaging than ever.
So this week we’re highlighting the special cocktails and events happening across Melbourne to celebrate the beginning of The Year of the Fire Horse.
Lost Bar
Right in the heart of Chinatown, Lost Bar is a bi-level venue, with each floor offering a distinct experience. Downstairs is playful, expressive, and technique-driven, focusing on modern methods and creative flavour combinations, while upstairs is more refined and spirit-forward, with an emphasis on structure, premium products, and a considered drinking experience.
For Chinese New Year and the Year of the Horse, Lost has created one feature cocktail for each floor. Downstairs will feature the Silken Fortune, taking a technical and textural approach in form of a clarified milk punch using Fen Chiew Red — a baijiu from Shanxi distilled from sorghum, barley, and peas — blended with a peach gum, goji berries and dried longan-infused sweet vermouth, dried fruit syrup, cacao, and citrus.
Upstairs, the Golden Gallop is built around the robust flavour profile of Dalmore 12 single malt. Combined with fresh mandarin juice, a house-made osmanthus honey, mandarin peel syrup and egg white for texture, the sherried character of whisky blends wonderfully with those flavours for a complex and well-blanaced take on the whisky sour that still lets the scotch shine through. For Lost venue manager Calvin Chan, the drink “represents movement, confidence, and forward momentum, all key themes of the Year of the Horse.”
Both cocktails will be available from 16 February through to 3 March.
Bar Selecta
Collaborating with Lost Bar and Matsuyama Yakitori for a Lunar New Year event, Bar Selecta is bringing the Year of the Horse to Hawthorne on Sunday 22 February from 5pm to 9pm. Curating a range of cocktails with Cantonese flavours for their guest shift featuring Lost’s Calvin Chan, you can expect twists on classics using ingredients like kumquat, goji berry, and lychees, which Joey Tai says “are the foods we use to celebrate Lunar New Year as they bring good fortune.” Matsuyama is a newly open hibachi yakitori restaurant in Prahran market by Kenny Chiu who will be on hand to fire up his hometown Taiwanese flavours on the grill to satisfy hungry guests. Get tickets and see more details.
Lee Ho Fook
If you’re looking for a proper banquet to celebrate Lunar New Year, it’s hard to go past Lee Ho Fook, one of Australia’s best modern Chinese restaurants helmed by chef Victor Liong. As well as serving incredible food, the cocktails at LFH are always on point, and this year they’re working with Hennessy for two special LNY cocktails. The Grain & Grape Highball features roasted grain teas from Chinese agrarian cultures carbonated with VSOP, while the XO Old Fashioned sees XO Cognac combined with coffee liqueur and rye whiskey for a spirit-forward, digestive style approach.
Spice Temple
Long one of the best places in Melbourne for an Asian-inspired meal, the cocktail list at Spice Temple is a lot bigger and more considered than at most restaurants. Arranged as a list of twelve drinks that each represent an aspect of the Chinese zodiac (monkey, rat, dragon, etc.), the cocktails at Spice Temple are getting a full refresh just in time for Lunar New Year. “We’re incorporating more advanced techniques into this iteration of the menu,” explains Jim Thomas, beverage director at Spice Temple, “as well as refocusing on Australian-made spirits and moving towards a dryer, more adult palate overall.”
“Each cocktail refelcts the personalities associated with that zodiac animal,” Jim continues. “So the Dragon is our version of a spicy marg, while the Rat is creamy and tropical. Our new version of the Horse for this year is esentailly a mash-up of a White Negroni and a Blue Daiquiri, made with Marionette blue curaçao, Suze, Lillet, and white rum for a cooling take on a Negroni.” Jim has been travelling to China for over a decade, and was inspired by the iridescent blue waters or ‘Blue Tears’ of the Dujiangyan in Chengdu in Sichuan.
Whitehart
If you’re looking for a party rather than a quiet cocktail, Whitehart is the place to be this Lunar New Year with their Lunar Laneway celebration. The program, curated by Naliita Tohch of Third Culture Club, will feature the sounds of the Asian diaspora, from Tokyo to Bangkok, Seoul to Manila, and beyond with warm, groove-driven, and forward-thinking tunes, as well as performances, projections and lion dances.
Food is of course a critical focal point of LNY celebrations, so Whitehart will be hosting "Trot & Taste" pop-ups with talented chefs, including a Malaysian and Filipino street food feast bringing together Chef Ross Magnaye (Serai) and Chef Keat Lee (Lagoon Dining) for a relaxed Sunday lunch of selat lumpia, pancit canton sangas, and raw beef with sambal vinaigrette. Sleepy's "Pop-up King" Steve Chan is also bringing a specialised dinner to the lane, with highlights including shepherd’s purse dumplings, cumin lamb skewers, and Hong Kong-style curry fishballs.
And of course the Whitehart bar is getting involved with Asian-inspired cocktail and beer specials, including one auspicious collaboration with Filipino gelato joint Kariton Sorbetes. There’s also a red packet giveaway with lucky dip prizes from Serai, Moondrop, and more. See the full schedule and get tickets to the limited pop-ups here.
Bar Clara
Ringing in Chinese New Year with a piece of liquid storytelling, Bar Clara’s limited-edition Fairfield cocktail takes its name from a prize racehorse sold off in 1897, when Charles Hughes Morris gambled on a bigger future, trading four legs for a vineyard, and in the process laying the foundations for what we now know as Morris Whisky. The horse lives on, stamped onto every bottle, and here it reappears as a chocolate-dusted flourish atop a velvety egg-white foam. In the glass, Morris Signature Australian Whisky is softened with their Classic Muscat, maple and lemon. It’s a celebratory drink with historical heft, best enjoyed while toasting the Year of the Horse, and hoping your own long shots come in.
Moondrop
And of course Fitzroy’s own Chinese-inspired cocktail cavern is ringing in the Year of the Horse with a bespoke Lunar New Year cocktail menu launching on Tuesday 17 February (a night they’re usually closed) with lion dancers and giveaways to make it a big celebration.
Have you put your application in to the Scholarship program at Bartenders’ Weekender? The Weekender takes place in Adelaide on June 14 to 16 (save the date!). We’ve got 10 Scholarships to grant, which include return airfares to Bartenders’ Weekender, three nights accommodation at the five star Sofitel Adelaide, $500 spending money and tickets to events (including the Better Bars Summit, the Boothby Best Bars SA Awards and the Drinks 100 Australia Awards Gala). Apply now at bartendersweekender.com.
