Great Northern Hotel
The licensee started Feral Brewery in Western Australia before he took on this 1883 corner pub in 2008, which is why a suburban local ended up with twenty-one taps.
Why go
Alistair Carragher built the beer list out and it stayed built. Broadsheet recorded twenty-one taps leaning hard on American labels, with Stone & Wood, Moo Brew and 2 Brothers holding permanent lines and Carlton Draught kept on because you can't take Carlton Draught out of Carlton
(Broadsheet). The list moves rather than sits, running new and seasonal ales and pilsners through the year (Time Out). There is a bottle shop attached, around sixteen reds and sixteen whites mostly from Australia, and a beer garden big enough to lose people in. The kitchen's one serious claim is the parma, and Urban List backs it: the pub runs parma night every Monday at A$22, with an eggplant version and a plain schnitzel for anyone who wants them.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the parma on a Monday night. Whatever seasonal ale or pilsner has just landed. A pot of Carlton if you want the local answer.
- Avoid: treating this as a food destination beyond the parma, and expecting a quiet table when a game is on.
What locals & experts say
- Lachlan Kanoniuk, Time Out Melbourne, four stars, June 2017:
They also treat their tap list like a coach treats their starting line-up a rotating selection of new and seasonal ales and pilsners, including full ranges of Stone & Wood, 2 Brothers and Moo Brew.
2 - Urban List Melbourne, in its best-parmas guide:
This classic pub situated in the depths of the northside easily joins the ranks as one of Melbourne's best parma's, its reliability and no-frills approach to the crumbed cuisine makes it a menu staple.
The guide also calls ita pinnacle location for its range of top-notch craft beers
.3 - Broadsheet, on the rest of the menu:
standard pub fare best enjoyed in the huge beer garden under hefty HD screens
.1 - The gap: the tap count comes from 2016, the star review from 2017, and The Crafty Pint carries no news piece on this pub. No chef in the 74-pick Melbourne corpus names it.
Good to know
- Where: 644 Rathdowne St, Carlton North, walking distance from Princes Park.
- Timing: Monday to Wednesday 11am to midnight, Thursday to Saturday 11am to 1am, Sunday 11am to 11pm. The bottle shop runs 10am to 11pm.
- Booking: walk-in.
- Dogs: welcome in the beer garden, and the pub says so itself.
- Room to know about: the front bar kept its old timber panelling through the 2016 bistro refit, along with a signed painting of Alex Jesaulenko's mark by Anthony Pavlou.
- Food safety: Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions, updated 21 July 2026, does not list this business or this address. Victoria publishes court convictions under s.53D of the Food Act, held for twelve months each, which is narrower than a UK hygiene rating.
Verdict
should-visit — The reason this suburban corner pub has a proper beer list is the man who runs it. Alistair Carragher started Feral Brewery in Western Australia with a mate before taking on the Great Northern in 2008, and he built the taps out to twenty-one, heavy on American labels, with Stone & Wood, Moo Brew and 2 Brothers on permanently and Carlton Draught kept on principle because this is Carlton. Time Out gave it four stars and described a tap list treated like a starting line-up, turning over with new and seasonal ales and pilsners. It also does the most Melbourne thing on the menu properly: Urban List puts the parma among the city's best, and the pub runs a parma night every Monday at A$22 with eggplant and schnitzel versions alongside. The beer garden is enormous, dogs are encouraged and there is a bottle shop attached. Two honest caveats: the rest of the food is pub food by Broadsheet's own account, and when a game is on, the main room belongs to the game.