East of Everything

If the purpose of a good bar is to temporarily lift you out of the everyday, then East of Everything can step forward to receive its rosette. That it does its particular brand of lifting on the border of Camberwell - a suburb still clinging to its dry area status - probably means it deserves a second rosette just for selling good booze in the only location left in Melbourne that still imparts a slight frisson of speakeasy rebellion.

But it's not just the proximity to Camberwell and its supposed hordes of gimlet-eyed prohibitionists that gives East of Everything its edge. The location is a pearler: down a narrow street, next to the railway tracks and on the top floor of a spectacularly nondescript box of a building. It's the same building that houses Bar None, East of Everything's sibling bar (run by siblings Gen and Michael Cotter) that's been dispensing admirable cocktails in the basement for nearly a decade.

One of the best things about East of Everything is the reveal as you step from the dingy, keg-strewn stairwell into the spacious, clean-lined space with its white-tiled bar, timber floors and banks of windows providing great views of the surrounding treetops, railway tracks and sunsets. It's a pleasant surprise, much like the ''outdoor'' area, beyond the rippled, stained glass door, where you can adjourn to catch a breeze and a not-so-sneaky fag by the open windows.

East of Everything has a fairly lengthy list of mostly classic cocktails (martini, Old Fashioned, Negroni et al, mostly around the $17-$18 mark) and does a good job, though their version of a margarita could have been a little sharper; it drank as if it had been hanging with the ice for too long.

There's also a short, serviceable list of wines but the real specialty here (as the sharper tools may have figured out from the massed kegs in the stairwell) is beer. There are six taps behind the bar - five for beer, one for cider - with a constantly changing offer of local and imported brews. Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout from Japan might sit alongside the pack-a-punch Temptation Ale from the Mornington Peninsula's Red Hill Brewery or the Dieu de Ciel Corne du Diable, an IPA-style beer from Montreal.

There are no pots or schooners (or even ponies) here as East of Everything treads a European path, offering beer by the 300ml, half litre or litre, but there's a good list of bottled beer that follows a similar path to the tap stuff, mostly favouring the craftier end of the beer scale (Green Flash West Coast IPA from San Diego, 2 Brothers Growler from Moorabbin).

East of Everything co-owner Michael Cotter is a partner in the Gumbo Kitchen food van that's a familiar sight on the circuit so it's not surprising there's a slight Creole lean to the food offerings here. A hefty chicken and sausage gumbo ($15) is not for the faint-hearted. For something a little snackier, try the Cajun sweetcorn fritters with avocado salsa ($12) or one of the quesadillas (chicken, shrimp or bean, $10).

There's a real confidence in the way East of Everything operates, from the interesting variety of booze, through to the pleasant service and comfortably furnished room. Looking over the leafy treetops on a sunny afternoon, a well-poured Japanese beer in hand and a Cajun snack at your side, it's hard not to have an ''ain't life grand'' moment. It's the kind of moment all good bars strive to achieve.

Cheers Wonderful urban bucolic views

Jeers The food can be a little patchy

Bartender's choice

While beer is East of Everything's main specialty, cocktails are no afterthought. Co-owner Gen Cotter has anointed one of the house concoctions, the Princess Fiona, as a kind of signature because ''it's very popular, slightly comical and great for summer''.

''It's named after a friend of ours whose name is Fiona who loves the movie Shrek,'' she says. ''It's a little like a pina colada but without the coconut cream.''

Princess Fiona

30ml vanilla vodka

30ml sour apple liqueur

30ml Passionfruit Pop

20ml fresh lemon juice

30ml pineapple juice

30ml apple juice

10ml coconut syrup

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tumbler filled with fresh ice. Garnish with lemon slices and sprigs of mint.