Above Board
The spirits are not on display anywhere in this bar. They sit in unmarked decanters in drawers under the counter, and the drinks list is about twenty-five long because that is how much fits.
Why go
Hayden Lambert came out of the Merchant Hotel in Belfast, was twice named Ireland's bartender of the year, then worked Bar Americano before opening this room at the end of November 2016 (Australian Bartender). Inside a year it took New Bar of the Year at the 2017 Bartender Magazine Australian Bar Awards. The design puts guests behind the bartender at an American walnut island, twelve at the bar and four more on banquettes, and Lambert works host, glassy and bartender at once. His own summary of the method: Take away a lot of the distraction you have in your bar, and just make an intimate space that is solely based on the people and what they want to drink
(Australian Bartender). Broadsheet puts the trade-off plainly: he would rather serve 25 cocktails he knows how to make perfectly, than hundreds he's less familiar with
(Broadsheet). The Negroni, Old Fashioned, Manhattan and Martini stay on the list; the rest moves.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Martini, with the orange bitters Lambert puts in it. Or say what you feel like and let him build it, which is what the second half of the menu is for. The Gentlemen Caller if you want rye, sweet vermouth and weight.
- Avoid: arriving with a group. Sixteen seats, one bartender, and no kitchen means this is a stop for two people, not a night out for six.
What locals & experts say
- Paul Chai, Time Out Melbourne, five stars (review written 2022, re-checked October 2024):
The precision with which Lambert designs the menu around the limited drawer space means that no drink is a gamble; all killer, no filler, if you will.
3 - Jun Pak, chef and co-owner of the Aoi Tsuki omakase, asked by Broadsheet where he goes for drinks:
Above Board in Collingwood. When I go there, I always order a Dirty Martini. If you want a cocktail with a different flavour, just let the bartender know, and they'll make one to your liking. They don't offer snacks to enjoy, but that's so you can focus on the bartender and the cocktails.
6 - Broadsheet, on the split it causes:
It's a polarising place, but you can't fault Lambert's intentions.
The bar will not make you any drink you can name.2 - World's 50 Best Bars 2021: No.44, and it has not been back on the list since. The award record since then is silence, which the entry states rather than dresses up.4
Good to know
- Where: Level 1, 306 Smith Street, Collingwood. Enter through Beermash and take the unmarked door at the back, or walk up Chopper Lane off Perry Street, which Google Maps does not carry.
- Timing: daily, 5pm to 1am.
- Booking: no source, including the venue's own site, states a reservation system. Treat it as walk-in and go early if you want one of the sixteen.
- Food: none. Eat first.
- Hygiene: Victoria publishes no venue ratings, only Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions under s.53D of the Food Act 1984, and this venue is not on it.7
Verdict
must-visit — The bar is designed around a drawer. Lambert keeps the spirits in unmarked decanters under the counter rather than on a back bar, and Time Out's Paul Chai says the constraint is the point: 'The precision with which Lambert designs the menu around the limited drawer space means that no drink is a gamble.' Around 25 drinks, 16 seats, one man working all of them, and the entrance is up a lane Google does not list. It won New Bar of the Year at the 2017 Australian Bar Awards inside its first year and reached No.44 on the World's 50 Best Bars in 2021, which is now history rather than news. What holds it up today is a five-star review from October 2024 and a working chef, Jun Pak of the Aoi Tsuki omakase, who orders the same Dirty Martini every time. Counter seating, no ceremony, no food, and technique you watch from a forearm away. That is the format Jeff sends people to, and Melbourne has too few of them relative to its tasting menus.