Bridge Road Brewers Brunswick

Bridge Road Brewers opened its first Melbourne venue in Brunswick East as the younger sibling of the award-winning Beechworth brewery that Ben Kraus and his wife Maria established in 2005. The split-level, U-shaped brewery and dining hall seats around 350 across a public bar with high-tops and booths, a small wine-focused cellar bar, and dog-friendly beer gardens spilling onto Nicholson Street and Bluestone Way. Studio Y designed the interiors, where - in Broadsheet's description - orange and blue dominate the space, with terracotta upholstery and a royal blue bar.

The draw for non-drinkers is that Bridge Road brews its own alcohol-free beer rather than stocking someone else's. The house 'Free Time' range is a full sub-0.5% ABV line: the flagship Free Time Alc-Free Hazy Pale is hopped with Citra, Simcoe and Enigma for a juicy hop aroma, low bitterness and a clean finish at 28 IBU, and is joined by a Free Time Hazy IPA and a Free Time Alc-Free Stout. The beer is made from just water, malt, hops and yeast, with the low alcohol a result of the brewing and fermentation process.

The venue runs 30 unique taps across two bars, with continually rotating selections from both the Beechworth and Brunswick brewhouses, so the Free Time pours sit within an actual working brewery's lineup. Head chef Jabili Mchawala runs an ingredient-led modern Australian kitchen - grilled eggplant with Asian seasonings, brisket with chilli-beer sauce and Afghan mustard pickles, jerk chicken with cornbread - open daily from noon to 9pm.

Open seven days from midday until late, it's a large, casual, family- and dog-friendly room where ordering alcohol-free doesn't mean stepping outside the craft-beer experience - the AF beer came out of the same brewhouse as everything else on tap.