Albert's in Armadale transforms from cafe to full-time wine bar, with a new look to match

After opening as a cafe during lockdown last year, Armadale venue Albert's has graduated to a full-blown wine bar with a new look and expanded footprint.

The changes include installing chef Aster Varagiannis and expanding into an adjacent tenancy, which has bumped the capacity from 15 seats inside to 40.

There are now three dining spaces across a bar, dining room and large covered pavement.

"It feels like a proper venue now," says Douglas Milledge, who opened the venue with sister Alice Freer and pal Toby Koffman.

"We were kind of just making do with a cafe set-up and running a wine bar out of that."

The new space has a communal table for 12 plus window and banquette seating, while the original room is now home to a green stone-topped bar, which Milledge thinks has the best seats in the house.

Freer, an interior designer, worked on the makeover, which she says is casual enough for daytime service but transitions easily into something more sexy for night.

Earthy tones of rust-red and green-grey touch the walls, linen curtains, joinery and shelving.

Varagiannis is preparing Mediterranean small plates such as burrata with onion jam, bluefin tuna ceviche with capers and dill, and a beef short-rib ragu with rigatoni.

Open Tue-Sun noon-11pm.

17 Morey Street, Armadale, 03 9509 2574, albertswinebar.com