Seamstress

Address: Level 1, 113 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Tel: +61 3 9663 6363
Website: view Seamstress’ website
Door: Open door/walk-ins
Style: Lounge bar
Food: Bar Snacks

Review

113 Lonsdale Street is a building with a little bit of history behind it. Home to a lingerie shop and, yep, a sweatshop for seamstresses, it was owned for a long time by the fabulously named underwear maker Anna Jewel.

Tally Konstas, who opened one of the earliest surviving bars in Melbourne, Tony Starr’s Kitten Club, back at the dawn of the millennium, owns Seamstress bar, Seamstress restaurant and Sweatshop, downstairs.

The décor pays homage to the building’s origins: all contemporary gentleman’s club until head-height, when giant spools of thread kick in and Chinese silk garments wave from hangers in the ceiling.

Accessible and classically-styled cocktails are proficiently made, with a page devoted to the martini. And if Dirty Martinis are your thing, opt for one of their Dirty Star-Tinis, which run from Christina to Amy Winehouse via Britney, Paris, Lindsay and Courteney.