Disloyalty Club: Bartender bar picks

Want to know where you should be drinking right now? We asked 20 of Melbourne's most professional drinkers - bartenders - to give up the goods on where they like to get on the sauce

First published on 4 Apr 2012. Updated on 3 May 2012.

Pei Modern
45 Collins Pl, Melbourne	It’s not a bar, but it’s the place to be right now for beers and sardines on toast. Every mother lover in the industry wants to worship at the altar of Mark Best.
EDV
1 Malthouse Ln, Melbourne	Craft cocktails. Good chat. Open on a Monday. No brainer. The EDV crew's bag of tricks and cocktail toys (hickory smoker, magnetic stirrers and liquid nitro on tap anyone?) means this bar is an off-duty playpen for 'tenders who want to cut loose with a renegade drink order.
The Standard Hotel
293 Fitzroy St, Fitzroy	Pints and parmas. If you work all night, you need to squeeze in some good wholesome daytime eating and drinking, hence the Standard beer garden gets a whole lot of daytime lovin' from night-owls.
Gerald’s Bar
386 Rathdowne St, Carlton North	Monday nights at Gerald's bar are unofficial hospitality conferences. It's all cold Moritz beers and hot industry gossip.
Bar Ampere
16 Russell Pl, Melbourne	Vernon Chalkers retro-futuristic bar gets the nod for its digestifs and snacks that all come with a spork. Plus, Gin Palace next door will keep serving the martinis till 3 in the AM.
Black Pearl
304 Brunswick St, Fitzroy	Is also known as the black hole – that inevitable vortex (of fun) into which all are inevitably pulled. They stock beers so boutique you won't have heard of them and know more about hooch than you do about yourself. "We ended up at the Black Pearl" is usually a sentence that precedes a long list of apologies and vague bruise explanations.
The Everleigh
150-156 Gertrude St, Fitzroy	Anyone with even a hint of cocktail love spends every spare cent and second at the Everleigh. It's more a place for serious drink professionals to do some seriously reverential drinking than a place to cut
The Bottom End
579 Little Collins St, Melbourne	Michael Delaney’s trash glam pub doesn’t quit till you do. What's not to love about a bar that lets you party till 5am with a po' boy and a bagged drink with a glow-stick in it?!
Bill’s Bar
104 Smith St, Collingwood	Proximity to Huxtaburger and $9 premium spirits equals fun in a bun!
Lily Blacks
12-18 Meyers Pl, Melbourne	The arena for cocktail comp Iron Bartender, and the place for kicking up heels with a cocktail of a Sunday. It's a pretty and quaint little cocktail bar this one, but on hospitality nights, things tend to get a little loose.