Spotlight On: Bridge Hotel

It’s not often you come across a venue in Melbourne that makes you stop and look. Not take a perfunctory glance, but really look.

The Bridge Hotel, prior to 2011, was your typical neighbourhood watering hole: it had dark corners, beer on tap and comfy, worn-in seats. Nothing wrong with that.

For hospitality group and owners Sand Hill Road though, ‘your typical neighbourhood watering hole’ didn’t meet their sky-high standard. Cue TECHNE architects being commissioned to perform a complete facelift. And by facelift, I mean full-blown reconstructive surgery.  

Running down the centre of the Bridge Hotel is its main artery – a sculpted alleyway, complete with shopfronts, street art, and pot plant-adorned balconettes. And within the walls of this TARDIS-esque building, lies a American-style retro diner, a garden, an urban-chic upstairs bar, and more. The Bridge Hotel hasn’t forgotten its roots – the good old fashioned locals bar is still downstairs.

The end product is what you see today – a brilliant, split-personality venue. But despite having multiple identities, the Bridge Hotel doesn’t feel disjointed. Every space interacts with the outdoor spaces and alleyways, coming together to form a micro-community.

With such a cool space, you could settle for house draught and a bowl of chips and gravy. But the folks from Sand Hill Road are dedicated to good food and drink (here’s looking at you, Garden State Hotel), and the Bridge Hotel is no exception. How does barbecue pork belly with apple and fennel salad with roasted pineapple salsa sound? Good. It sounds good.

The wine list is a carefully considered homage to the vineyards of Victoria and South Australia, with a few international guests sprinkled throughout for good measure. And on Thursdays, if you feel like a mid-week treat, they have $15 espresso martinis in five flavours. Five. Including a chocolate orange flavour. So you’re basically drinking a jaffa tiramisu.

That being said – it’s not all fancy pants (although they do literally stock Mountain Goat Fancy Pants). The $16 midweek parma special and $7 pints during happy hour on Friday still pulls in the loyals and locals.

The Bridge Hotel has something for everyone - it’s the ultimate crowd-pleaser. Show off.