Victoria · Fitzroy
The Elysian Whisky Bar
Specialty whisky bar
A Fitzroy whisky bar built like the ones in Tokyo, pouring rare single casks from Japan and everywhere else.
The Elysian opened on Brunswick Street just before Christmas 2016, from Kelvin Low and Yao Wong, both formerly of Whisky & Alement. They modelled it on the whisky bars of Tokyo: a long Californian redwood counter, leather seats and low tables, warm light, jazz on the stereo, and bartenders who ask what you like and pour from there.
It isn't a Japanese whisky bar in what it pours. The back bar holds about 350 bottles and leans on independent bottlers and single-cask releases, mostly Scotch, with Japanese, Irish, Australian and other whiskies alongside, and about ten new bottles arrive each week. Many are one-off casks you won't see on a shelf again.
It's here for the room and the way it's run, which is as close to a Japanese whisky bar as Melbourne gets, and for the list, which has won Australian Bartender's Whisky Bar of the Year in 2018, 2023 and 2024. The small food menu comes from chef Ryo Kitahara of Assiette De Parti.