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Whatever happened to those good old dark, dingy pubs complete with walls adorned with 40yr old postcards, barflys who look like they’ve been there since 1967, staff who are older than 25, and a menu for takeaway beers?
I’ll tell you what happened to them – they were bought up by cashed-up bogans, ex corporate-whores looking for a slower life, and fine-dining restauranteurs, turning all those dirty pubs once frequented by interesting people into….the super-cool, ultra-glossy gastropub where things like truffle oil appear on the menu.
But never fear, some pubs have survived the evil takeover of the yuppie crowd and still serve VB from a tap. Some still have carpet, not shiny concrete or polished jarrah floorboards salvaged from the deck of one of the First Fleet ships. Some still serve a parma with chips and salad, not a parma with oven roasted herbed potatoes on a warm grilled vegetable couscous salad. Most are hard to find and are usually found in back streets, tucked away from the main strips and concrete footpaths populated by stiletto heels and $300 sneakers.
When I first moved to Fitzroy, the first thing my housemates and I did was Google-map the distance between our new abode and the Standard Hotel. 220 metres. We had scored.
The Standard is one of those venues that truly defines the old school Melbourne pub scene. It has a lot of beer on tap (Draught, Coopers, Mountain Goat, Asahi, and Hoegaarden amongst them). It serves delicious, hearty pub food. There are two open fireplaces and a small stage for a little 3-piece rockabilly band. It’s décor is probably circa 1984. The friendly staff are polite and lovely, they’re the sort of bar staff who are so unaware of how cool they are. It has all the stuff that’s missing in those sleek, cold trendy pubs: colour, character and life.
And it has a beer garden, a very large, leafy, shady, paved beer garden with massive communal tables and overgrown ivy. In the winter, the garden is blasted with warmth, radiating from the heaters suspended above each table and in the summer, there is no better place to be on a nice, balmy light-drenched evening chatting with mates as the sun takes its time to go down.
The only thing better than a great old school pub is a great old school pub with a fabulous menu. The food here is really well priced – average prices for pub fare, around $15-$25 for a main. Old favourites rule at the Standard, be it the parma, the fish & chips, the sausages and mash or the steaks (including kangaroo). Specials change daily and usually include fish, meat and pasta. Vegetarians are very well catered for, there’s plenty of space for big groups or dinner for two, the music isn’t too loud and the crowd is always pretty relaxed.
Perhaps the only downside is the waiting time for food – usually it’s pretty good, but on the weekends, it can take up to an hour to get your meal, probably because the place is packed and everyone wants to eat there. But really, if whiling away time in that beer garden or in front of an open fire is the worst thing that can happen, it’s not a bad deal at all.
The Standard Hotel
293 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy
Check the website for more details
All Images Copyright The Standard Hotel
