By Sacha Delfosse
Award winning Sydney cocktail bar, Eau-de-Vie will open the doors to its new Melbourne counterpart venue tomorrow night (November 10).
The bar will officially be trading under the name EDV Melbourne, since the name Eau-de-Vie is already being used by a café in the city. It will be providing the same concept and service that visitors to Sydney’s Eau-de-Vie are accustomed to, with a few distinctions of its own.
“It’s a larger venue but we will have the same cosy feel and be very similar in everything from the style of service down to the music we play and the art work we have hanging on the walls,” EDV Melbourne general manager, Greg Sanderson says.
“But it’s also a little bit different. Everything is set up quite communally like Sydney is, but we have private booths and we also have a 'communal degustation station' where we will be running cocktail to food matching.”
“We will start running those from Wednesdays to Saturdays with a 7.30pm seating, but once we start to get busier we will be doing two sittings on Saturday and Sunday nights.”
The bar will operate seven days a week, closing at 1am everyday expect for Sundays when it will shut at 11pm, and Sanderson has managed to recruit an all-star team that includes Merlin Jerebine, Jamie Chesher, Josh Crawford, Kash Wall, Claire Wong and Sean Baxter.
The cocktail list is a combination of “Melbourne drinks and Sydney drinks”, Sanderson says, but once the bar is set up and running the team will be creating its own customised cocktail menu.
Apart from quality cocktails, EDV Melbourne will also have a strong focus on quality food, offering a bar menu built around a selection of tapas and sharing plates, with the former sous chef from MoVida coming on board to run the kitchen.
“Many cocktail bars in Melbourne just do minimal food – you go somewhere for dinner first then somewhere else for a drink after, this is somewhere you can come and spend most of the night.”
“People should come down and check it out for themselves. We have a great team in place and I think we are going to be a venue where you can come and eat, drink beautiful cocktails and get incredible service all in the one place,” Sanderson says.