Three Horses

The team went to La Venencia in Madrid, a hundred-year-old sherry bodega, and came home to build their version of it. The room they took over was called Troika, which means three working together, or a carriage pulled by three horses, so they kept the sense and changed the word.

Why go

Rob Libecans, Matt Stirling and Ryan Noreiks already run Caretaker's Cottage, ten doors up the same block, and they now hold two of the four licensed buildings around Wesley Place. They are direct about why this room exists. "Caretaker's is comfort," Libecans told Broadsheet. "Three Horses is energy." Sherry is the thread: four of them by glass or bottle on any given day, rotating, with Pennyweight from Beechworth standing alongside the Spanish bottles. The cocktails are built from as few parts as possible, which is harder than it sounds. The Jabberwock is a martini seasoned with dry sherry, poured at the table. The mango G and T is whipped with house-made sorbet until it is smooth all the way through. Emily Morrison, reviewing it for Time Out in March 2026, gave it five stars and wrote that the magic "lies in the quality of the ingredients and the precision of their execution."

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Jabberwock. The mango G and T, "whipped to order, resulting in a texture so smooth there isn't a single shard of ice in sight" ref. A glass of the Pennyweight fino with an olive, which the staff will hand you. The Ir(ish) Coffee if you want a dessert drink that does not sit heavy.
• Avoid: Sunday to Tuesday, when it is closed. Eat before you come. The entire food menu is corn nuts, seasoned in-house with mountain pepper and wattleseed.

What locals & experts say

• Emily Morrison, Time Out Melbourne, five stars (2026): "This isn't a smoke-and-mirrors cocktail bar; it doesn't need to be. The magic lies in the quality of the ingredients and the precision of their execution. There are no gratuitous garnishes." Her one criticism is the food: she argues a proper gilda would earn its place. ref
• Sofia Levin, food writer, treats the two rooms as one option: "you can get a drink at Caretaker's Cottage or Three Horses around the corner." ref
• Rob Libecans, co-owner, on the pair: Caretaker's "pretty much runs like a UK or an Irish boozer," while this one is "definitely a cocktail bar." ref
• Australian Bar Awards 2026: a finalist for New Bar of the Year, and the three owners are finalists for Bar Operator of the Year, on a peer vote of the trade. ref

Good to know

• Where: 106 Little Lonsdale Street, under 100 metres from Caretaker's Cottage. Soft blue front, plain window lettering.
• Timing: Wednesday to Saturday, 4pm to 1am at the September 2025 opening. Quiet until about 5.30, then four deep at the bar.
• Booking: none. Walk in.
• The pair: same three owners as Caretaker's Cottage. This is the newer, larger room and the easier one to get into.
• Safety: Victoria publishes no per-venue hygiene rating. Safe Food Victoria's register of court convictions under the Food Act 1984 was read in full on 1 August 2026 and does not list this venue. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

• Rec via: three separate bartenders, who recommended this room over Caretaker's Cottage. That word-of-mouth is recorded in docs/RANKING.md as the project's worked example of practitioner evidence, and it is why this row exists.
• Note: none. Melbourne has no saved-places export in the repo, so nothing further is attributed to him.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

must-visit — Three bartenders told Jeff to come here instead of Caretaker's Cottage, which is the strongest evidence this project collects short of his own plate. The owners are the same three people, ten doors up Little Lonsdale Street, and they are honest about the difference: Libecans calls Caretaker's comfort and this one energy. It came out of a trip to La Venencia in Madrid, so sherry is the through line, four of them rotating daily with Pennyweight from Beechworth beside the Spanish. The Jabberwock is a martini seasoned with dry sherry, poured at the table off a gold horse swizzle stick. The mango G and T is whipped to order until there is no ice left in it. Emily Morrison gave it five stars in March 2026 and put her finger on why it works: no smoke, no mirrors, no gratuitous garnishes. The trade made it a New Bar of the Year finalist in July. Go at 4pm for the quiet room or 5.30 for the noise, and eat first.