Melbourne nightlife and evening entertainment guide

Melbourne's nightlife is the most diverse and sustained of any Australian city — the laneway cocktail bar culture, the live music venues of Fitzroy and Collingwood, the jazz and blues clubs, the late-night dining of the CBD and Chinatown, and the club scene of King Street and the Revolver Upstairs create a night economy that the city's cultural policy has actively supported against the licensing restrictions that have damaged comparable scenes in Sydney and Brisbane.

The laneway cocktail bars — Meyers Place and beyond — the Melbourne CBD laneway bar culture (Meyers Place, Black Pearl, Romeo Lane, Eau de Vie) created the Australian cocktail bar concept in the 1990s and continues to lead the market for sophisticated drinking environments at city-centre prices. The laneways' grid means bar-hopping on foot is genuinely the best format.

The Corner Hotel and The Tote, Richmond — the Richmond live music corridor between The Corner Hotel and The Tote provides the live music experience that Melbourne's reputation rests on. The Tote's closing threat in 2010 and the community protest that kept it open is the clearest evidence of what Melbourne's music culture means to its residents.

Chinatown and the late-night dining circuit — the Chinatown on Little Bourke Street, the Korean restaurants of the CBD north, and the late-night dumpling houses provide the midnight meal that Melbourne's culture of eating after midnight at reasonable prices creates in a way that no other Australian city has replicated at comparable quality and scale.

Jazz and Blues — Paris Cat and Bennett's Lane — the Paris Cat Jazz Club on Goldie Place and the legacy of the now-closed Bennett's Lane create Melbourne's jazz circuit for the dedicated music listener who wants the small venue intimacy that the major venues cannot provide.

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