Ophelia

Need lunch, but don’t feel like going to a cafe or splashing out on a restaurant? Even in a city like Melbourne, your options are limited. Ophelia – the fifth venue from the Terror Twilight team – aims to bridge the gap by merging the cafe and bar formats.

To that end, you can roll in first thing for an evolving breakfast menu designed to share. To drink, there are coffees from rotating guest roasters, house fermented sodas, and a fancy iced latte with miso-butterscotch cream.

Later, the restaurant-but-not energy kicks in. Think bullhorn peppers stuffed with fried red rice, black bean, tahini and grana padano; and deli plates brimming with market cheese, cold-cuts, pickles and more. A drop from the list of biodynamic local wines or cocktails can and should be enjoyed at the central curved bar.

The menu is matched by a retro-ish Euro-style aesthetic of warm timbers and original red terrazzo flooring. But the real statement piece? The floor-to-ceiling record wall, accompanied by vintage speakers and a turntable spinning vinyl all day.