Feel like an award-winning glass of wine under $10 and your choice of The Age, The Financial Review and The Herald Sun to read? Section 8 is the big outside laneway bar with the plaster sheep that everyone remembers – and yet nobody on a trip back to Melbourne can ever find. Story and images: Jessica Adams.
Tucked away at 27-29 Tattersalls Lane is one of the best $10 Melbourne secrets you’ll ever find. It’s an old car park, turned into a big, leafy, outdoor bar – known as Section 8. Its famous sheep is moved around by bar staff from one week to the next. Sometimes it even appears in a tree.
Section 8 is off Lonsdale Street in the heart of the city, within walking distance of many excellent (pricey) restaurants like Seamstress and Longrain – but also very close to classic cheap Chinatown noodle joints for more ten dollar fun. Sit on old shipping pallets, or stand up and drink on painted oil drums.
Herbs and tomato plants growing in tubs on the lane, misters for hot days and heaters for cold nights make this very special. In January they ship in sand and convert it into a beach. It’s hard to believe this used to be a car park frequented by drug users, but Section 8 creator Maz Salt had a vision in 2006, and nine years later, that vision (originally intended to be a temporary pop-up) is still going strong. Section 8’s beer and wine list always dips under $10. Be aware that Friday and Saturday nights are packed, and there are queues and bouncers – but for a wine o’clock drink, it’s wonderful.
