Best places to eat and drink: November

Make the most of the warmer weather and longer days. Whether it’s pre-theatre snacks, a fiesta floating on the river or Sunday sessions at Fed Square, here are just a few to tide you over until summer.

Victoria By Famer’s Daughters Festive Sunday Sessions

Spearheaded by acclaimed chef, Alejandro Saravia, Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters has teamed up with iconic gin distillers, Four Pillars, to present Festive Sunday Sessions.

With a nostalgia-loaded menu featuring free-range roast turkey and ham served with a Bloody Shiraz “mock cranberry” sauce; succulent fried chicken with Marie Rose aioli and charcoal-grilled lamb and grass-fed beef paired with a Christmas pudding spice BBQ sauce, their Christmas bottomless brunch will usher in the festive spirit (even if we are only in November).

Four Pillars Christmas Gin plays the leading role in a dominantly bubbly drinks menu, that includes the “Conversation Starter” with cherry syrup, sweet vermouth, soda and orange; “Jolly Spritz” with hazelnut liqueur, lemongrass, ginger syrup, lemon, cherry bitters and soda; and “Santa’s Nightcap” with orange marmalade liqueur and chocolate bitters.

For more information, click here.

Viva La Mexico at Afloat

Now in its eighth season on the banks of the Yarra, Afloat turns to rich and vibrant culture of Mexico for this year’s iteration.

This year you’ll find a stripped back menu. From the raw – ceviche snapper with red onion, jalapeno or agauchile rojo prawn, avocado, cucumber, and radish – to the warm – a choice of six different tacos, or larger plates like flank steak with ancho chilli butter, mole verde, and lemon to pescado de Mexico whole baby barramundi, salsa verde, torillas and lemon.

As always, wood-fired pizzas play their omnipresent role on the menu, propping up the 70m long offering.

For drinks, there’s just about every combination of margarita you can think of, agave happy cocktails, spritzes, the annual Four Pillars x Afloat collaboration and a typical line-up local and international wines.

For more: afloat.melbourne

Ludlow Bar & Dining Room is back after a spruce-up

A fresh new menu will capture the best of Southern European styles with a focus on grazing share plates with a couple of modern pub favourites with a Ludlow twist thrown into the mix.

Keeping its usually extensive wine list, solid selection of local and international beers and a master cocktail menu, you’ll also find a range of quality spirits from far and wide.

Also under the Red Rock Venues umbrella, just a stone’s throw from Ludlow is Hophaus, the host venue for Tanqueray Gin’s Spring/Summer activation. •

For more: redrockvenues.com.au