Published every Thursday, Snack Bar is a bite-sized guide to everything happening in Melbourne food and drink, including new menus, events, pop-ups and special offers. Plus, we round up every new restaurant, bar and cafe we covered over the previous seven days.

What’s on around town

• Collingwood Japanese restaurant Chotto Motto and Indonesian-accented sanga joint Warkop have teamed up for a three-day collab. Specifically, a sweet and spicy soft shell crab roll. It consists of tempura-battered soft shell crab, crispy chilli hot honey caramel, fennel salad and sauce verte on a potato roll. Available September 4–6 at Warkop Melbourne and Richmond.

• “Making Swan Street lit again, one charcoal barbeque at a time” – that’s the tagline for Masterchef runner-up Petro Papathomas’s weekend pop-up at Hugo’s Deli. He’ll be cooking one-off sheftalia (Cypriot sausage) muffins with pomegranate molasses, cumin salt and harissa butter. 8am until sold out, September 5 & 6 at Hugo’s Deli, Richmond.

• Smith & Daughters is reserving the first Sunday of every month for Spanish long lunches – starting this weekend. Book in for a generous set menu alongside live music and big, shareable jugs of cocktails and wine. The convivial vibe is specifically for lingering. $80 per person. 12pm, September 6 at Smith & Daughters, Collingwood. Book here and see the menu.

• Trisha Greentree is one of Sydney’s finest chefs. She currently steers the ship at Potts Point Italian institution Fratelli Paradiso. Andrew McConnell’s Cumulus is bringing her to town for a four-course set menu. Highlights include potato doughnuts with anchovy, a green and white asparagus salad, and saffron risotto with roasted scallops. $150 per person. 6pm, September 8 at Cumulus Inc, Melbourne. Book here. 

• Rolo’s Pizza Club is coming to Hot Listed brewery Molly Rose. Nama’s Geoff Marett and Raph Hyams are popping up with a menu of four pizzas and four snacks, paired with special drinks from the brewery. The duo’s take on the margherita features smoked olive oil, parmesan and black pepper. Other options include stracciatella and hot honey; zucchini and ’nduja with pine nut pangrattato; and a very intriguing prawn and nori pizza that speaks to Nama’s Japanese roots. From 4pm, September 11 at Molly Rose, Collingwood. Bookings are essential. 

• If you’re old enough (50-ish), you might recall spending Friday nights at Preston Market. For the rest of us, it’s a complete novelty. This spring the sprawling site is putting on three hours of food, live music, pop-up stalls and kids’ activities. Acts appearing at Night Festival include Jessica Wilson of Fools and Ventura, Latinx DJ collective Bellaqueo and Sri Lankan band Dynamics. 6pm–9pm, September 11 at Preston Market. See the full list of participating traders here.

• Hot Listed wine bar Public Wine Shop has a knack for hiring the most interesting chefs’-favourite-chef types in the country. And when it can’t hire them, it brings them in for one-off events. On September 13 the name is Aaron Turner, the lauded chef behind Geelong restaurants Igni, Songbird, Tacos y Liquor and Hot Chicken Project. He’ll cook a four-course lunch menu. $95 per person. 1pm, September 13 at Public Wine Shop, Fitzroy North. Book here. 

• Greek wines are easy to find and drink in Melbourne, if we’re talking about classic varieties like assyrtiko. Nice Eyes Wines is an importer that deals only with the country’s most exciting emerging winemakers, and it’s bringing that knowledge to Tzaki for a one-night dinner. There are just 34 seats available across two seatings, which include four courses by head chef Yianni Papanatsios, plus matched wines. $110 per person. 5.30pm and 8.30pm, September 15 at Tzaki, Yarraville. Book here.

• Mesa Verde and Nama’s Mexican-Japanese dinner for our second Dine Out festival was such a hit, they’re bringing it back less than three months later. Book now for a four-course, six-dish menu paired with free-flowing magnums of saké. $94 per person. 7pm, September 17 at Mesa Verde, Melbourne. Book here.

New openings we covered this week

• Afloat, Melbourne. The city’s favourite floating bar has launched for another season with Baklava Negronis and Greek island vibes.

• Bar Gabi, Yarraville. Fine-diner Navi is about to welcome a sister to the world. Chef Julian Hills and his team are a month off opening the two-storey, charcoal-powered restaurant and bar on Anderson Street. 

• Bar Tenko, Brunswick East. A sommelier with two decades of experience is behind this Japanese wine bar, where you can pair udon carbonara with rare saké and “phenomenal wine” .

• Itera, Brunswick. The Kudo team has brought its breads and gluten-free canelés to a full-size bakery in the former Hard Yakka factory.

• Nina, Northcote. Less than 18 months after opening Suze in Fitzroy North, Giulia Giorgetti and Steve Harry are expanding with handmade pastas, classic spritzes and 20 wines by the glass. 

• Scroll Lab, Brunswick West. Melbourne’s scroll craze might have peaked. But this experienced newcomer isn’t worried, thanks to flavours like Thai milk tea with crispy rice and palm-sugar caramel, and Vegemite with honey, parmesan and olive oil in laminated croissant dough.

• Better Now Bakes, Brunswick East. Great Australian Bake Off’s Jai Johns has opened a vegan bakery with za’atar scrolls, Persian love cakes and glossy miso-caramel apple turnovers.

Closures

• Mensho Tokyo Ramen in the CBD has mysteriously shut.

Other food and drink news

• 20 years on, is Bar Lourinhã Melbourne’s most consistent restaurant?

• The 26 hottest dishes in Melbourne right now. We asked Suze, Taqueria Sin Nombre, Daybaker and more what their customers can’t stop ordering. From a coffee-braised pork cheek to cereal milk croissants and roast duck dishes, here’s what they said.

• Where Chefs Eat: Melbourne’s best ice-cream and gelato, according to 23 top chefs.

• Where Chefs Eat: Zareh head chef Josh Fry loves this one-man kitchen that’s like “you’re in his living room”

• Beef smash burgers are everywhere in Melbourne. This pickle dust chicken smash burger is something fresh.