Ms Botanica adds gin drinks and grown-up snacks to Yarraville village

Gun for hire James Cornwall left his head chef gig at Cumulus Inc. last year to slow down a bit, switching to a part-time role slinging bar snacks at Bonny in Fitzroy. Now he's doing the same at a new gin bar on the other side of town, Ms Botanica.

"I didn't think I would do something else so quickly, but it's just around the corner from my house," the chef says of the Yarraville venue.

"It's very much a neighbourhood bar, with people calling in on their way home from work."

When he found out the space that was previously Japan's Kitchen was flipping the script to drinks, he got in touch with owners Stacie Sinclair and Scott Rice to offer his services.

Cornwall's nine-item menu debuted in late January, with the same sustainable-first ethos of Bonny applied to dishes such as zucchini flowers with almond cream, one of many vegetarian or vegan choices. There's one seafood snack – pickled mussels on toast – and one meat dish: Sher wagyu eye of rump with a mushroom ketchup and mountain pepper sauce.

An oozy caramel, chocolate and wattleseed ice-cream sandwich ticks the "messy but worth it" box.

More drink-friendly snacks include brown butter and seaweed madeleines and an all-vegetable "gilda" featuring rounds of beetroot and watermelon wrapped in seaweed and topped with feta.

"It's got those gilda flavours of salty feta, umami from the nori and freshness from the watermelon," says Cornwall, while also acknowledging the name is more humour than homage.

The 40-seat bar specialises in cocktails made with Australian gin, such as a River Mint South Side, and boasts an old-world feel thanks to timber-panelled ceilings, exposed brick walls, ceiling fans and hanging plants.

Open Thu-Sat 5pm-11pm.

34 Ballarat Street, Yarraville, no phone, @ms_botanica