Caretaker's Cottage

A 1914 caretaker's cottage behind Wesley Church seats about 25 people and ranked 19th on the World's 50 Best Bars list for 2025. The martini comes out of a freezer, built on house gin held near serving temperature so it barely needs stirring and lands colder and less diluted.

Why go

Rob Libecans, Ryan Noreiks and Matt Stirling took the empty bluestone shell in 2022 and it drinks like a small pub. The freezer-gin method is the tell: less dilution buys a sharper, colder drink than a room-temperature stir can. The list stays deliberately short, Broadsheet counting "three classics cocktails, three house creations and one Martini" with a rotating milk punch beside them, which is a bar backing its judgment rather than refreshing a menu. It pours at the level that took Best in Australasia at the 2025 World's 50 Best Bars and Cocktail Bar of the Year at the 2025 Australian Bar Awards, and Melbourne's own cooks and bartenders name it more often than any other venue in the city.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the martini, then its Guinness-and-martini boilermaker. Ask which clarified milk punch is on; clarification drops the curdled milk solids out for a silky, shelf-stable drink. Snacks run to Welsh rarebit and smoked-trout dip. There's no full kitchen.
• Avoid: rolling in late with a big group. The room seats about 25, one of Victoria's smallest. Come at opening or stand on the street.

What locals & experts say

• World's 50 Best Bars (2025): ranked #19 in the world and "The Best Bar in Australasia 2025," a page that opens "Discover world-leading martinis in this Melbourne city refuge" and calls it "Melbourne's busiest cocktail bar." ref
• Australian Bartender (2025): named Cocktail Bar of the Year at the Australian Bar Awards. ref
• Time Out: a 5-star review calling it "probably Victoria's smallest bar." ref
• Broadsheet: "one of the World's 50 Best Bars," known for freezer martinis and the Guinness-and-martini boilermaker. ref
• Seven of Melbourne's own, across six pieces. Andrew McConnell: "Drink and snack must be Caretaker's Cottage. On point, simple and always delicious." Tom Sarafian of Zareh: "hustle a spot at the bar in between the Pitt & Giblins speakers, where I stay until someone kicks me out." Victor Liong comes "to try and split the G on a perfectly poured Guinness." Zackary Furst: "I love a Guinness, but the punch is always a winner." Mino Han, who runs his own bars, rates "the quality of the cocktails" as exceptional, and Rosheen Kaul sends first dates here. No Melbourne venue is named more often in the corpus.
• The pairing, from a food writer: Sofia Levin treats the two rooms as one option, "a drink at Caretaker's Cottage or Three Horses around the corner."

Good to know

• Timing: from 4pm, to midnight Monday to Thursday and 1am Friday and Saturday.
• Booking: none. Walk in.
• Near MCEC: no, about 2.5km in the CBD, a short tram or 10-minute rideshare.
• Pair it: the same team opened Three Horses at 106 Little Lonsdale St in 2026, a sherry-led bar with a tableside martini called the Jabberwock, closed Mondays, two minutes away.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Order: the freezer martini, then the Guinness boilermaker.
• Note: the bar Melbourne's bartenders name first. Tiny room, about 25 seats, so get there at open.
• Pair with: Three Horses up the street, same team.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

must-visit — Held at must-visit on 2026-07-30, and the industry evidence found this pass makes it the least arguable rung in Melbourne. Seven working chefs and food writers name this bar across six separate Broadsheet pieces between 2024 and 2026, which is the highest tally of any venue in the city corpus. Andrew McConnell calls it his drink-and-snack. Tom Sarafian hustles a stool between the speakers and stays until someone throws him out. Victor Liong comes to split the G on the Guinness. Add No. 19 in the World's 50 Best Bars for 2025, Best in Australasia, and Cocktail Bar of the Year at the Australian Bar Awards, and a freezer Martini poured from gin held near serving temperature. The whole list is three classics, three house creations, one Martini and a rotating punch, which is depth rather than churn, and it is right. Twenty-five seats, no bookings, so build the evening around getting in at open.