Benchwarmer

Benchwarmer is a hybrid beer hall and bottle shop at 345 Victoria Street in West Melbourne, a short walk from the northern edge of Queen Victoria Market. The room pairs 18 rotating taps with a fridge of 150-plus cans and a kitchen turning out Japanese izakaya-style plates; executive chef Geoff Marett spent five years cooking at Hong Kong's acclaimed Yardbird. Indoor and outdoor seating sits alongside a working takeaway bottle shop, so drinks can be bought to go or opened on-site.

What makes it work for non-drinkers is the same thing that drives its beer list: obscurity. Rather than stocking mass-market zero-alcohol lagers, Benchwarmer carries lesser-seen non-alcoholic beers from imported craft breweries such as To Ol in Denmark. Cans and bottles can be taken away at retail price or drunk in-house for a small corkage of a few dollars, letting non-drinkers work through the same rotating, hard-to-find selection as everyone else and match it to the snacks coming out of the kitchen.

Broadsheet featured Benchwarmer in its round-up of Melbourne's best non-alcoholic bars, describing it as a pick from the city's clutch of bottle-shop-bar hybrids stocked with lesser-seen non-alc beers. The venue runs Wednesday to Sunday, opening at 4pm midweek and from noon on weekends.