The beloved Carlton North wine bar is on the move and its owners have offered their old Rathdowne Street digs to the team behind Carnation Canteen. Here’s what’s planned.
After the recent closure of Carlton North stalwart Gerald’s, as the wine bar readies to relocate to Lygon Street next week, comes news that the original site is set to be reborn.
Taking over 386 Rathdowne Street, home to Gerald’s Bar for nearly 20 years, is the young-gun team behind Fitzroy restaurant Carnation Canteen, led by chef Audrey Shaw.
She’s been a regular at Gerald’s since she was 21, but it was shock when owner Gerald Diffey cold-called her to ask if she would be interested in making the bar her own.
“I was obviously incredibly flattered and slightly terrified and you have all those feelings … are we ready?” she says. “It was never something we could’ve instigated.”
Shaw was encouraged by Diffey – and her mentor, restaurateur Con Christopoulos (The European, French Saloon, Kafeneion et al.) – into answering with “a resounding yes”.
At the back end of summer next year, the original Gerald’s Bar will reopen as Bar Carnation, a “more casual, spontaneous and late-night” sister to Carnation Canteen.
“The first question we ask people walking into Carnation [Canteen] is, ‘do you want a glass of champagne or a martini?’ and that won’t change.”
Chef Audrey Shaw
Shaw’s first restaurant has become more of a special-occasion destination than she expected, so she’s excited to add a walk-ins-only neighbourhood bar to the family.
Keeping the Gerald’s legacy alive starts with keeping the hours: 5pm to 11pm daily. “That was in the core DNA of the venue, knowing it’ll be open,” says Shaw. “It’s a real hospo haunt Mondays and Tuesdays, so we don’t want to isolate the current clientele.”
The layout will remain more or less the same, from the alfresco street-side seating to the existing timber bar. “We really want to keep the bones of the building,” says Shaw.
But there will be some changes. The back bar will be decked out in stainless steel, a la Carnation Canteen; the sound system will be upgraded; and a cellar bar and bottle shop will open in the room beyond the front bar, as much for wine tastings as takeaways.
Increased storage space will let the wine offering expand across both Carnation venues, still focusing on natural, biodynamic producers and exciting drops from France, Italy and Spain. As at Carnation Canteen, the house white and red will be $12 a glass.
“The first question we ask people walking into Carnation [Canteen] is, ‘do you want a glass of champagne or a martini?’ and that won’t change,” says Shaw, who’s keen to keep that level of service, plus the cocktail consistency Gerald’s was known for.
Shaw – who’s worked at iconic London restaurant The River Cafe and the two-hatted Tedesca Osteria – cooks a hyperseasonal, weekly changing menu at Carnation Canteen.
Bar Carnation will be less fluid, but just as seasonally focused. Expect snacks like a daily bruschetta and Maker & Monger cheeses, and classic mains like steak frites using rotating cuts, and two pastas (one blonde sauce, one red). There’ll also be a blackboard of specials: “It could be 10 incredible pork chops that just run out when they run out”.
Bar Carnation is slated to open in late summer 2026 at 386 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North, carnationcanteen.com
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