Check the Vue at Lui Bar

The view alone is worth it at the new Vue de Monde. Photo: Adriane Strampp

In case you hadn’t heard,Lui Bar at Shannon Bennett’s new Vue de Monde at the top of The Rialto is open to all comers. And it is not only worth it for the drinks but the vue (view geddit?) of the traffic streaming through Melbourne at night.

The attention to detail and the levels of service at Lui Bar are unmatched in Australia. First you approach the receptionist, who communicates with the bar via FBI-stle earpiece and microphone, at the foot of The Rialto Tower.

Your name is taken, my name recognised as having visited Vue de Monde before, and I’m sent to the bar to be met at the top level with a gleaming block of ice sitting on the bar at the entrance.

I slipped into a dry martini and was clocked by Rocco Esposito who I’d been talking with on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Adriane dives into the Negroni, which comes with a single cube of the venue’s amazing clear ice and almonds sugared with Campari.

There are plenty of snacks for the hungry. Last night beef stew and Poire Belle-Hélène was the special. Or you could have chosen from Chicken Noodle Soup, Roadkill terrine, French onion soup chips, Moonlight Bay Oysters or ham and cheese toasties.

If you can’t afford the full Vue de Monde experience, then it’s worth a trip here.