Hats & Tatts CBD
A frat-themed dive bar with a CO2 carbonation rig behind the counter, used to build a negroni that arrives fizzing instead of stirred.
Why go
The gear is there because the founder has a stake in a distillery. Jason Chan part-owns West Winds Gin and runs the bar as a testing ground for it, which is how a room with pinball and a billiards table ends up with cocktails on draught, a nitro kit and micro-distilling equipment (Broadsheet). Behind that sits a 450-strong spirits library, about 150 of them bourbon and rye. The kitchen came from Nick Willard, formerly of Touche Hombre, and his fried chicken sits three days in salty buttermilk brine. One thing to know before you read any of that as current: it describes the South Melbourne premises the bar occupied until it moved to Russell Street in 2022, and no critic or guide has covered the drinks since.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the carbonated negroni, then something off the bourbon and rye shelf. Espresso martinis come off a tap. Eat the fried chicken.
- Avoid: Sunday and Monday, and any expectation of quiet. Do not go looking for the South Melbourne address.
What locals & experts say
- Orlaith Costello, Concrete Playground, on the room as it is now:
This dive bar relocated from its South Melbourne digs to its new two-level spot in the heart of the city, offering up good tunes, great drinks and American comfort food in the realm of hand-held classics like burgers, fried chicken and more.
Food runs until 3am.1 - Broadsheet, on the kit, describing the pre-move room:
The venue makes its own cocktails on draught, it has micro-distilling equipment, a nitro kit and Co2. The carbonating equipment, for instance, makes a crazy fizzy negroni.
Same page carries the relocation notice in bold.2 - Nothing dated since the move. No press coverage, no working venue website and no reachable venue channel confirms the bar is still trading. Hours circulating on directory sites are not proof a bar is open, so they are not carried here as fact.
Good to know
- Where: 1/246 Russell Street, Melbourne. The bar left South Melbourne in 2022.
- Timing: late, with a kitchen running to 3am. Nobody publishes the trading days, so check before you make it the plan.
- Booking: walk-in.
- Website: none that resolves. The business has no working domain, so the field is left empty.
- Food safety: no entry for this business at either address on Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions as at its 21 July 2026 update.3
- Near MCEC: no. CBD, about 2km from South Wharf.
Verdict
could-visit — A late one if you are already in the CBD after midnight, with a caveat about how much of this we could verify. The kit is the reason to go: cocktails on draught, a nitro rig, micro-distilling equipment and CO2 carbonation used to build a fizzing negroni, in a bar with about 450 spirits behind it and around 150 of those bourbons and ryes. That is unusual gear for a dive bar and it exists because founder Jason Chan part-owns West Winds Gin and treats the room as a testing ground. Food runs to buttermilk fried chicken brined three days and a po boy made with oyster mushrooms, and the kitchen is open until three. The honest caution is that the whole drinks description comes from coverage of the South Melbourne room the bar left in 2022, and no critic or guide has published anything dated since the move to Russell Street. Order the carbonated negroni and judge it yourself.