MELBOURNE | One of my favourite new spots in Melbourne is Collingwood’s Hope St Radio. It’s the permanent home of the community radio station founded by Pete Baxter, which has been popping up at venues across Melbourne over the past few years.
Housed inside the former metalworks studio of former TAFE, Collingwood Yards, the station promotes local DJs and artists, and features a rotating, diverse array of talent. The impressive sound system plays what’s being broadcast at the time, live throughout the venue.
As well as a radio station, the new space also operates as a bar. Pete, along with co-owner Jack Shaw, have built a wine list with a focus on interesting, minimal-intervention drops from around the world. There’s also tasty cocktails and Stomping Ground beers on tap.
Great tunes, tick, great drinks, tick, but there’s a third reason to visit, and that’s the delicious food of head chef Ellie Bouhadana and the team. Lauded for her pop-up dinners, self-taught chef Ellie’s food features a rotating, seasonal selection of comforting food with a fresh spin.
It’s all very delicious, with a particular highlight being the pasta. One of the current pasta dishes, parpadelle with rabbit and pork ragu (black truffle optional) is so good that I’ve already had it twice this week. Judging by the amount of it I saw coming out of the kitchen last night, it’s a lot of people’s favourite.
If all of that wasn’t enough to convince you to head in to Hope St Radio for a visit, well here’s one more reason, the team are genuine, nice people. They’re involved in lots of community initiatives, and helping those less fortunate. During lockdown, they offered free food to anyone doing it tough. Pretty great eh.
Hope St Radio
35 Johnston Street
Collingwood
Victoria 3066
Australia
Telephone: n/a
E-mail: n/a
Website
Open
Thu – Sun: 3:00pm to 11:00pm