Melbourne's new mezcal bar Bodega Underground

Where can you find 3000 vintage movie posters from the golden age of Mexican cinema, dumpling tacos and 80-plus varieties of mezcal, tequila, raicilla and sotol? Bodega Underground, of course.

Hospo mates Julian Downing (ex-Lucas Group) and Geoff Machirus (Wonderland, the Royal Saxon) switched on the red neon sign for their first solo-venture over the weekend; they say it's Australia's first "mezcaleria", aka a subterranean homage to agave-based spirits.

It's in the basement next to the Crossley Hotel (although an independent venue) where cocktail bar East End Den once was; now decked out in Jesus and Mary statues, dripping candles and the aforementioned movie posters which Downing and Machirus painstakingly pasted onto every surface of the venue by hand (with no help from their mates).

They've a kitchen partnership with the crew behind Taiwanese street food truck Ghost Kitchen for a Mexican-leaning street food menu from the onsite kitchen.

Bonus points for the intentionally poor Spanish (if in doubt just add a vowel): the "la porka" is a traditional Oaxacan taco of pulled pork with stringy mozzarella-like quesillo and cumin-accented mushrooms; "la dumpling", a cabbage and shiitake mushroom-filled potsticker wrapped in a tortilla, is a non-traditional ode to their Chinatown location.

The boys have decided to run on Mexican time which means last drinks at 3am and food until 2.30am on the weekends. What's Spanish for "bottoms up?"

Open daily 5pm-3am.

Basement, 51 Little Bourke Street, 03 9650 9979, bodegaunderground.com.au