Byrdi Melbourne closes after six years in the CBD

Byrdi, the Melbourne Central bar that built its drinks list around native Australian plants, has closed. Co-owner Luke Whearty announced it on the bar's Instagram account on Friday 18 September, six years after it opened.

"This has all happened very quickly," Whearty wrote. "This is not the way we saw things ending here. However, we were forced into a situation we didn't have control of." He did not set out what that situation was, and neither owner has commented further on the terms.

What Byrdi Melbourne built in six years

A bar built on slow production rarely survives a shopping-centre rent.

Whearty and Aki Nishikura opened Byrdi in 2019, after running Operation Dagger in Singapore. The method carried over: ferments, distillates and infusions made in-house, a short list that changed with what was picked, and a room that treated wattleseed, saltbush and native citrus as working ingredients rather than local colour.

The last version of the bar, called Ephemera, leaned on wine and lower-priced cocktails, a common move in a city where late-night spend has not returned to 2019 levels. It was still on Broadsheet's Hot List when it shut.

A hard year for Melbourne rooms

The closure lands in a city that has been trading people in and out of its dining rooms all year. Melbourne Central is a shopping-centre address, with the rent and the footfall that implies, and a bar built on slow production is an awkward fit for a site that empties at closing time.

The contrast with the opening side of the ledger is sharp: this month a group took on a 70-year-old dining room in the city with a full French menu. Bars that sell technique rather than volume are the ones struggling to hold a lease.

Whearty says the door is not shut for good. "We're currently still navigating what the future looks like," he wrote. "For now, we are closed at this location." Byrdi Melbourne has ended in its current form; whether it reopens somewhere cheaper is the only open question.