Gin Palace

Vernon Chalker opened Gin Palace in a former lightbulb-factory basement off Russell Place on November 4, 1997, and Australian Bartender reads the opening as "both ahead of its time and a callback to a place lost to time." The martini comes to your table rather than the bar, poured cold at 90ml.

Why go

The room was built to look like a table-service lounge from a different century, velvet banquettes and chandeliers in a windowless cellar. Behind the bar sits a wall of more than 330 gins, which Time Out calls the largest selection in the Southern Hemisphere, rebuilt in tiered Tasmanian oak during a 2024 renovation. That reno came after founder Chalker died in 2020 and Ben Luzz took the bar over, closing it about a month to redo the back bar while leaving the mood alone. It runs daily from 4pm to 3am, which makes it the late default when the CBD kitchens have shut and you still want a proper martini.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the martini, the drink the bar was founded on, and an entire menu page is given to it. Ask for a flight if you want to work the gin wall. The kitchen is small, so anchor the night with the chicken sandwich.
• Avoid: arriving with a group and expecting to reserve a normal table. Only the booth known as the harem, seating up to 12, takes a booking. The rest is walk-in, and the basement fills.

What locals & experts say

• Broadsheet: the velvet-and-chandelier room reads "opulent and luxurious," making "a swanky affair, one well suited to first, or even last, drinks." ref
• Time Out: the bar took the Legend Award at the 2016 Food & Drink Awards, its industry recognition for a lasting institution. ref
• Australian Bartender: "20 years ago, on November 4 1997, there was a bar opening that was both ahead of its time and a callback to a place lost to time: Melbourne's Gin Palace." ref

Good to know

• Timing: open seven days, 4pm to 3am. This is the late-night pour, not a dinner stop.
• Booking: walk-in for the floor. The harem booth, up to 12 people, is the one reservable table, so call ahead if you have a group.
• Near MCEC: about 2.5km across the CBD in the eastern grid, a 25 to 30 minute walk or a short tram plus a stroll down the laneway.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Held at should-visit on 2026-07-30, with one claim corrected. The old line said Gin Palace started Melbourne's laneway era, and none of the sources cited here say that, so it is gone; what Australian Bartender actually says is that the 4 November 1997 opening was 'both ahead of its time and a callback to a place lost to time'. The rung rests on depth and a niche nobody else fills: more than 330 gins, billed by Time Out as the largest selection in the Southern Hemisphere, rebuilt into tiered Tasmanian oak in 2024, poured as a cold 90ml martini brought to your table until 3am. Under the primacy rule that stable, deep back bar is the craft, not a lack of movement. It stays under must-visit because no Melbourne chef or bartender in a 74-pick industry sweep named it, and the city's top drinking rooms carry current awards this one does not.