Just Open: Glamp Cocktail Bar, CBD

Going bush with a hand pump-operated espresso machine and a device called a "Twist'n Sparkle" to carbonate your negronis is glamping – glamorous camping – and it's now, bizarrely, a thing of the city.

Jerome Borazio will soon be launching a high end tent "hotel" on the roof of Melbourne Central and opening this week above East African-inspired bar polēpolē is a new cocktail-focused space called Glamp.

Drinking here won't be camping-on-the-roof adventurous. The space that had a former life as Tony Starr's Kitten Club has simply been dressed in safari clobber, notably a couple of large canvas tents, which will likely spend much of their lives filled with private parties.

For now, the food will come from the kitchen of polēpolē downstairs, and that's a good thing. Their harissa lamb ribs and fried haloumi bites are some of the city's better bar snacks. Later there will be a separate menu to match the honey-and-fruit driven cocktail list.

Melbourne owners Dean and Jeanelle Mariari drew inspiration for both bars from trekking in East Africa in 2011 and they took great care to ensure polēpolē steered clear of kitschy themes. You probably couldn't say the same of Glamp, which is a little more "tourist safari" with walls featuring straw baskets, fake wildlife busts and multi-coloured hurricane lamps. A cocktail called the the Maasai Warrior is a bit cultural-cringe too.

That said, it's a decent drink, made by Ben Hehir, late of London's L'Atelier (beet juice, gin, Campari, Carpano Antica and honey, it's like a really dirty negroni). It's also nice to know that this bar pays back to the places from which its inspiration comes, with donations from sales of the African beers going to not-for-profit organisations YGAP and Women for Women.

Glamp Cocktail Bar, Level 2, 267 Little Collins Street, 9650 2811, www.polepolebar.com.au. Wed-Sat 6pm-late. Bookings available.