Beneath Driver Lane

Tucked beneath a laneway off Little Bourke Street, Beneath Driver Lane occupies the brick-arched vault of the old Money Order Office, an appendage to Melbourne's General Post Office building. The room is modelled on the grungy blues bars of New Orleans and the late-night music haunts of Paris: black-and-white photographs on the walls, candlelight and low-hanging lamps, arched booths, and live blues on the schedule Thursday through Saturday.

The drinks program is cocktail-forward and technically ambitious, built around an extensive back bar of whiskies and rums and a menu of classics with a modern twist. For anyone abstaining, the bar runs a set of four fully alcohol-free cocktails: a zero-proof Negroni, a spiced pineapple Daiquiri, a Winter Paloma and an Americano - all built without alcohol rather than sweet soda-and-syrup mocktails.

Time Out Melbourne singled the venue out in its 'where to drink when you're not drinking' guide, noting the no-alcohol cocktails are 'all 100% alcohol-free but just as lip-smackingly good.' French bistro-style bar snacks - oysters, charcuterie, smoked octopus - round out the offering. It's an adults-only, hidden-door room that works as well for a soda-and-lime evening as a spirits crawl.