Correction (1 October 2026): an earlier version of this page was generated from map listings and repeated descriptions we could not stand behind. It presented venues that opened in 2025 as new, gave Bar Elsie an opening date of “early 2026” with no address (Good Food reported it open at 396 Lygon Street in October 2025), and carried “insider tips” nobody had checked. It has been rewritten. Every opening below is dated to the venue’s own announcement or to named press, and nothing older than about six months is listed as new.
Openings are announcements with dates. This page lists what has opened in Brunswick East since June 2026, with the source and the date on every line, and one closing date worth knowing. Four new places made the cut, all inside the suburb: three on Lygon Street and one on Nicholson Street. Two are bakeries or cafes, one is a sake and wine bar, and one is a bottle shop. Hours change in a new venue’s first months, so check the venue’s own page before you head out.
The quick picks
| Opening | Address | What it is | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Better Now | 130 Lygon St | Vegan bakery | Broadsheet, 2 Sep 2026 |
| Tenko Sake and Wine | 472 Lygon St | Sake and wine bar with a bottle shop | Broadsheet, 27 Aug 2026 |
| Brunswick Eats | 120 Nicholson St | Brunch cafe | Good Food, 27 Jul 2026 |
| Drop Shop | 70 Lygon St | Bottle shop | Broadsheet, 10 Jun 2026 |
Better Now — 130 Lygon St, Brunswick East VIC 3057
Status: Confirmed. Source and date: Broadsheet’s first look, published 2 September 2026, and the venue’s own ticketed Cookbook Club listing at this address. Better Now is the first permanent shop for Jai Johns, who Broadsheet reports was the first vegan contestant on The Great Australian Bake Off, after years on the farmers' market circuit. Broadsheet lists a za’atar, olive and cheese scroll, potato focaccia with chilli oil, a cardamom Persian love cake, an almond bostock and a miso-caramel apple turnover. Bostock is a French bake: a slice of brioche spread with frangipane and baked a second time. The bakery runs a monthly cookbook club, where members cook a recipe at home from that month’s plant-based book and share it buffet-style. We found no menu or prices published online: we found no website for the bakery, and its Instagram account is login-walled.
Opening date: not announced by the venue; Broadsheet’s first look ran on 2 September 2026.
Tenko Sake and Wine — 472 Lygon St, Brunswick East VIC 3057
Status: Confirmed. Source and date: Broadsheet’s first look, published 27 August 2026, and the bar’s own website. The venue describes itself as “wine shop in the front, snack bar in the back”. Broadsheet names sommelier Nicholas Oliveiro as the man behind it, in his first solo venture. Sake is a brewed rice drink, and Broadsheet reports the list is arranged in chapters by mood and story, with aged sake (koshu) and fruited umeshu and yuzushu. The food menu on the bar’s own site lists udon carbonara at $20, Welsh rarebit with yuzu koshu at $10, a pickle plate at $10, gobo kinpira (sautéed burdock root) at $8, and lambagu with curry and rice at $18. Its site gives hours as Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 6pm to 10pm, Friday and Saturday 4pm to 10pm, closed Sunday and Tuesday.
In the former: Brunswick East Wine Store, which Broadsheet says traded at the address for 12 years.
Brunswick Eats — 120 Nicholson St, Brunswick East VIC 3057
Status: Confirmed. Source and date: Good Food’s first look, published 27 July 2026, and Broadsheet, published 4 August 2026. This is the first venue owned by chef Zoe Pearce, whom both outlets describe as ex-Beatrix. Broadsheet lists a smoky bacon and egg bun with bearnaise, a scorched corn, manchego and jalapeno croquette, and a cake cabinet with bomboloni filled with banana milk custard. Bomboloni are Italian filled doughnuts. Good Food lists it as open for breakfast and lunch daily, and gives its Instagram handle as @brunswickeats3057. We found no menu or prices published online: we found no website for the cafe, and that Instagram account is login-walled.
In the former: Milkwood cafe, per both Good Food and Broadsheet.
Drop Shop — 70 Lygon St, Brunswick East VIC 3057
Status: Confirmed. Source and date: Broadsheet’s first look, published 10 June 2026, which said the shop would open that week, and the shop’s own website. Drop Shop’s own site says it stocks “around 170 carefully chosen” wines, beers, spirits and non-alcoholic options, sorted into three categories: Weekday, Party and Fancy. Broadsheet names Luke McKinnon and Dan Sims as co-founders. The shop runs a free wine tasting, The Drop In, every Thursday from 4.30pm to 6.30pm; on 1 October its site listed a named guest and winery for each Thursday from 8 to 29 October. Hours on its site are Monday to Thursday 11am to 9pm, Friday and Saturday 11am to 10pm, and Sunday 11am to 8pm.
Opening date: the week of 10 June 2026, as reported by Broadsheet.
Closing soon
Tiny Bar — 221D Blyth St, Brunswick East VIC 3057
Status: Reported. Source and date: Broadsheet, 21 September 2026, quoting the owner’s own announcement. Broadsheet reports that Tiny Bar will close on 9 October, with co-owner Zac Shearer citing the end of the lease: “Right now feels like the right moment to finish the story rather than sign up for another chapter.” Broadsheet named it one of 2025’s best new bars. If you want to go before it shuts, Broadsheet lists its hours as Thursday to Saturday, 5pm to 11pm.
Quick answers
What has opened in Brunswick East recently?
Four openings covered by named press since June 2026: Drop Shop, a bottle shop at 70 Lygon Street (Broadsheet, 10 June); Brunswick Eats, a cafe at 120 Nicholson Street (Good Food, 27 July); Tenko Sake and Wine at 472 Lygon Street (Broadsheet, 27 August); and Better Now, a vegan bakery at 130 Lygon Street (Broadsheet, 2 September).
Is there a new wine bar in Brunswick East?
Tenko Sake and Wine at 472 Lygon Street, which Broadsheet covered as new on 27 August 2026, is a sake and wine bar with a bottle shop at the front. For takeaway, Drop Shop at 70 Lygon Street opened in the week of 10 June 2026, according to Broadsheet, and runs a free wine tasting every Thursday from 4.30pm to 6.30pm.
What is the new cafe in Brunswick East?
Brunswick Eats at 120 Nicholson Street, chef Zoe Pearce’s brunch cafe in the former Milkwood site, which Good Food covered on 27 July 2026. Better Now at 130 Lygon Street is a vegan bakery that also sells coffee.
Are Daphne, Bar Elsie and Times New Roman new?
Not any more. Daphne at 52 Lygon Street started trading on 10 November 2025, according to Onya Magazine. Good Food reported on 13 October 2025 that Bar Elsie at 396 Lygon Street had opened the week before; its daytime Coffee Bar, entered from Hickford Street, opened on 14 May 2025 (Broadsheet). Good Food reported in June 2025 that Times New Roman had been open since April 2025; its own website gives its address as 66 Lygon Street. All three are older than this page’s six-month window.
What is the new Thai restaurant on Lygon Street in Brunswick East?
Good Food’s review of 15 May 2026 said Ari.BKK, a Thai restaurant on Lygon Street, opened in March 2026. That is more than six months ago, so it is not in this list.
How we checked
On 1 October 2026 we read the first-look articles in Broadsheet and Good Food for each opening, and used each article’s publication date as the “source and date”. We confirmed every address at a second, independent source: the venue’s own website, its own ticketed event listing, OpenStreetMap or, for Brunswick Eats, a second publication (Broadsheet). Tenko’s prices and hours, and Drop Shop’s range, tastings and hours, were copied exactly from their own websites on the same day. We found no menu online for Better Now or Brunswick Eats (we found no website for either, and their Instagram accounts are login-walled), so no prices are given for them. Anything older than about six months is left out of the list, however good it is. The photos are illustrative, from Unsplash; they show the kind of food or drink, not the venue’s own.
Seen something out of date? Email [email protected] with the page link and what has changed, and we will check it again.
Last checked: 1 October 2026.
Sources
- Better Now: Broadsheet first look, Cookbook Club listing on Humanitix and OpenStreetMap
- Tenko Sake and Wine: tenkosakeandwine.com.au and Broadsheet first look
- Brunswick Eats: Good Food first look and Broadsheet
- Drop Shop: dropshopdrinks.com, its What’s on page and Broadsheet first look
- Tiny Bar: Broadsheet, 21 September 2026 and OpenStreetMap
- Daphne: daphne.melbourne and Onya Magazine
- Bar Elsie and The Coffee Bar: Good Food, October 2025, Broadsheet, May 2025 and barelsie.com.au
- Times New Roman: timesnewbrunswick.com and Good Food, June 2025
- Ari.BKK: Good Food review, 15 May 2026
