Two hospo heavyweights combine to open luxed-up brutalist new Melbourne bar Purple Pit

Two years have passed since veteran restaurateur Maurice Terzini, of Sydney’s renowned Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, teamed up with Joe Jones, co-owner of the now-closed but influential Melbourne CBD cocktail bar Romeo Lane, to sign the lease for the basement of Melbourne’s neo-gothic Queen & Collins building, beneath Reine and La Rue.

Given the delays, it’s miraculous the sexy subterranean cocktail bar they’re finally ready to reveal, is “a carbon copy of the original idea”. And the name? It’s Purple Pit, after the nightclub in the 1963 Jerry Lewis comedy The Nutty Professor.

Entering off Collins Street, a mezzanine level gives you a bird’s-eye view of their vision, as brutalist as it is luxed-up. Snake down a red-carpeted staircase to find a gleaming stainless-steel back bar and black smoked mirrors that catch the flickering candlelight from each table, while a floor-to-ceiling curtain frames the room, making it feel like “the inside of an expensive handbag”, Jones says.

He and Terzini were inspired by the grandeur of Europe’s hotel bars (note the plush armchairs and suave table service), the grit of a good dive bar (“It doesn’t matter if you want Krug or Jack Daniels here,” Jones says) and a shared love of post-punk music.

Jones considers his cocktail list Eurocentric, favouring the simplicity of a drink that “actually tastes like the sum of its parts”. But he’s not afraid to sharpen up a classic.

His Bellini swaps “gluggy puree” for aromatic peach essence, combining it with burnt-honey vodka for a snappier flavour profile. His Emerald City cocktail “tastes like a glass of Cremant”, with a jasmine spirit distilled in-house, a champagne reduction and green apple soda.

Champagne is the vino focus, so you can blow out on Dom Perignon, but affordability is also top of mind. “You can also get a quality $70 bottle and not head into triple-digits,” Jones says.

Like the bar itself, snacks go hard on the high-low trend of balancing the fancy with the unfussy. Riffing on the go-to cheeseburger-champagne combo, Terzini and Jones have leaned into their shared Italian-Australian heritage with a cheeseburger calzone: “Slice it with a big steak knife and eat it with a sidecar of cos lettuce, onion and pickles,” Jones says.

Other “champagne foods” include Appellation oysters and Yarra Valley caviar, plus cheffier dishes such as bright cured tuna loin with yuzu kosho (pair it with a Martini).

Purple Pit opens on Tuesday, December 12.

Open Tue-Sat 3pm-late.

380 Collins Street, Melbourne, purplepitbar.com