Harley & Rose

Harley & Rose sits on the Barkly Street strip in West Footscray, about twenty minutes west of the Melbourne CBD, and it is the sort of place a neighbourhood keeps to itself: a wood-fired oven turning out puffy pizzas with pipis, parsley, lemon and cream, nduja-stuffed fried olives, a wood-fired lasagne, a front courtyard, and enough children on a Friday night that nobody minds yours. Time Out named it Best Casual Restaurant in 2018. The wine programme, run by former Cumulus beverage manager Mark Williamson, is the reason the drinks list is better than the format suggests.

That care extends to the drinks with nothing in them, which is rarer in a suburban pizzeria than in a CBD cocktail bar. The list prints MOCKTAILS as a heading with three house builds beneath it, all made in-house rather than poured from a bottle. The Lemon Leaf Sour uses a house-made lemon leaf cordial with lemongrass. The Pine-Lime Splice sets apricot and pineapple against lime and falernum, which keeps it from collapsing into sweetness. And the non-alcoholic mulled wine, on a house-made spiced syrup, is a genuine winter drink - the kind of thing most venues only make with wine in it.

A separate ZERO PROOF block covers the bottles, and it is a properly considered four rather than a token one: Heaps Normal lager in 333ml cans from Canberra, Heaps Normal 'High Hopes' prosecco, a zero-alcohol Squealing Pig sauvignon blanc from Marlborough, and Altina 'Pepperberry' shiraz, one of the better Australian de-alcoholised reds and made with native pepperberry. Because there is a bottle shop attached, anything you like can go home with you. Practically: it opens evenings only, Tuesday to Saturday, closes Sunday and Monday, and Friday is the loud night. Come earlier midweek if you want to actually taste the drinks.