The Workers Club

You can’t beat this place on a Monday night.
Cheap jugs ($ 8) and pots (but really, just get a jug… it’s only 8 bucks) along with other «happy hour» (in quotes, since it’s all day Monday) specials. Decent pub fare. Unpretentious vibe. I can’t speak to the other nights of the week, but at least on Mondays, The Workers Club is a 5 star find in Fitzroy.

The Working club. It’s located in the middle of Brunswick. Brunswick is pretty much the trendy area of Melbourne. It’s equivalent to Wicker Park in Chicago, Silver Lake in LA, and Williamsburg in NYC. It’s loaded with a lot of culture and hipsters. However, I will say that their beard game isn’t up to par with the American cities just mentioned.
Anyway, my Aussie cousin and I stopped by for drinks before we had dinner at Culter & Co, which is down the street. Drinks were fairly priced and there was a decent amount of beers. There’s a big Rolling Stones mural on the wall. Too bad they didn’t have a mural of Mick Jagger’s lips. Actually, it was a good thing they didn’t.
Lastly, there was a physically challenged person and they rushed to make accommodations for him. I thought that was really great. To be honest, that’s the only reason I gave them another star.

With $ 8 Jugs on a Monday, what could go wrong?
This place was a great find, the ambience and fit-​out of the place is great and makes for great conversational environment. The house tap beer ($ 8) is pretty seedy, and makes you feel so, but they do offer a great range with prompt and quick service. you won’t be waiting long for that first sip. It draws a lot of internationals from the local hostel ;)
The music selection is perfect for a night and my friends and I had a great time and chill night.

We stopped into The Workers Club last night for one last bev before heading back home. Of course, it was like 11:00 because we are old people. Our friends were reliving their memories of visiting the place when they were in their 20’s and in a super cool band. It was a trip down memory lane since they hadn’t been back in like 10 years. I was not expecting too much as it looks like a typical divey hotel bar when you first walk in. The place seems to specialize as a music venue and strangely, a BBQ joint. However, I took a chance and ordered an old fashioned with Bulleit Rye. The bartender was excited to get to use his actual bartending skills on a real drink, as apparently real cocktails are a rare order up in The Workers Club. Regardless, he made a wonderful drink and I was very happy. We didn’t stay too long but I noticed the place was starting to fill up soon after 11. And that was our cue to exit. Old people. Can’t take them anywhere cool.

Just thinking about how to start this review is making me laugh and shake my head. What a bunch of chumps we are…
Myself and 3 friends headed to The Workers Club for a Live Lodge show this weekend and we’d read that there was a Texas BBQ there too. Awesome! If you’ve ever been as lucky as I have to go to the Salt Lick BBQ in Austin, Texas you’ll know how good a Texas BBQ is. Huge helpings of everything cooked over a pit and you end up leaving with the meat sweats in a food coma. Bring it the hell on!
Firstly we were ushered into a small, quiet, candle-​lit room which seemed very out of place to the rest of the joint. But once we were handed the menus our excitement levels grew a little. Everything sounded pretty delicious. I mean it’d be pretty hard to make a Texas BBQ sound sh! t. One of the guys ordered pork (can’t go wrong), the other ordered beef cheek, which both came with a side of mash, and us girls decided to share a serving or mac n cheese ($ 22) with a side of slaw as well as some vegemite and cheese stick things that came with cider dipping sauce (the waitress made it sound pretty good) so we weren’t in a coma for the gig.
The first thing to come out was the pork. We were all a little bewildered thinking maybe this small handful of pork & pickles was meant as an entrée for another table. Then came the mac n cheese. We sort of looked at it, looked at each other, looked at the waitress and looked back at it then died laughing. Our $ 22 serving of mac n cheese was approximately the same amount of food I would feed my cat. The beef cheek came out by itself on a saucer. A freakin’ teacup saucer. The mash we’re pretty sure was Deb and if you like vinegar then you’ll probably enjoy the slaw. The vegemite and cheese sticks — nothing like what we pictured. 3 doughy as hell miniature scrolls approximately 5cms in length with a sauce that had pudding skin on the top.
After a drink each the whole ordeal came to about $ 120 and we headed into the band room (where you also need to remortgage for a pint) feeling used, abused and hungry. Boo and bah humbug!

I’m here to support a friend’s band and the Workers Club is known to be the venue to listen to new bands/​singles launches. I think mainly catering to rock, hardcore, metal type genre. Not really my type of music but also willing to open up and listen once in a while.
I’ve also been here for weekend arvo drinks and it’s nice to enjoy a drink and the pub food isnt that bad either.
Overall, it’s a decent joint to hang out.

I went there for a specialty pork night… they had some great chefs out back doing just pork… the pulled pork sandwich was outstanding.

Good place for a Monday night. Lots of sprouters and ok drink prices. whiksey & coke is like $ 6. Random DJ’s every monday, but they got a good dance floor.

The Workers Club is a lovely place! It’s suitable for a date, hanging out with friends, and drinking too much. It’s never particularly over-​crowded, and the people who go there give the place a very inviting atmosphere. Some excellent Melbourne bands play here too.
It’s the kind of place I would go regularly, if I lived locally.

I went here recently and got myself into a bit of a quandary:
The bar snacks looked nice, but I needed that money for
more drinks. The workers’ was formally the Rob Roy, and
has hosted some pretty rad band here in it’s time. It’s a shame
to admit, but it has taken more that 6 years for me to finally enter
the place.
The layout seems to be a little compartmentalised, but I was
hanging out in the front drinking section. Pretty sure there is
a band room out back somewhere. They have DJ jams from
the 90’s, dj’s playing in 2012 that is, but playing music of that
era. Everyone then gets herded to the Laundry bar.
Its a pub and always will be; its no as ratty as once it was,
from what I hear, and has been given a make –over but not
a super pretentious one.

The Workers Club runs an event called ‘Orlando’, which i attend every time.
From the outside, ‘The Workers Club’ doesn’t look like much but once you enter; is really something else. Orlando see’s The Workers Club play your ever-​so-​cool über 80’s /​90’s mash up mix tape with the crowd to suit.
There’s the main bar, a band room, a courtyard and a smaller bar as well, The Workers Club is a decent venue with awesome gigs, great pub food and cheap jugs on specials nights.

I’m a worker, so this club suits me down to the ground. It’s not a club though, it’s quite clearly a pub that serves pretty alright food and lots and lots of booze.
Personally, I like the band room. A small gig space that can get quite packed and sweaty, but with a nice long bar to keep live music lovers hydrated and pissed. I’m always rather impressed by the bands they book to play here.
The cruddy outside area is great for cooling off when the gig room gets to be all too much. It’s a bit messy and makeshift but Fitzroy can be a bit like that so it should come as no suprise.
The front room is a bit more grown up, you know, it looks fancier and cleaner and people are sitting up high on stools so that can’t get so off their faces that they’re not able to stay balanced in their high chairs. It gives the place an air of decorum, which is only superficially real.

I cannot stress how great of a place this is on a Monday!
They have decent pub food. They have really cool, local bands play gigs almost every day of the year. They have occasional craft markets.
But here’s why monday stands out:
CHEAP JUGS!
Starting at 4pm, you can get a $ 6 Jug. At 7pm that price goes up… all the way up to $ 8. Even at 10pm you can still swing a cheap one. These aren’t tiny jugs that make you look like a giant… nope. They’re the standards.
For some tunes, cheap entry fee, CHEAP JUGS and a fun crowd (great people watching… and why not chat them up…) get here any night, bust most importantly MONDAYS.

Monday night is where this place is at.
The bands are reliably good and if you work outside of the usual nine to five, Monday to Friday. This place. Come here. If you like bands that play the type of music you want to dance to but not hear the same old nonsense over and over, then come here.
I’m not into worshiping bars or clubs, something like that only works every now and again and its never sustainable. But there’s a good scene here and I’m really into it. It’s good to know there’s somewhere reliable to go on a Monday night where you can talk, dance, mingle and get good prices for drinks at the same time.
Lots of different areas to sit and/​or stand around to chat with friends, a reasonably sized room up the back to watch the bands, and a bar in the right place to get access to drinks — it’s all been figured out.
Home to the Fitzroy-​elite who have a great sense of fashion and (hopefully) personality to boot and without the pretentiousness, you can have a great night here.
If you need a place to go on a Monday, this is as good as it gets. Even if it were a Friday or Saturday, this would still be great.

This pub has many different guises, all of them good. Art installations in the windows give an indication of its hipster vibe that continues through to its contemporary décor. Timber exo-​skeleton walls, geometric feature prints, carpet walled booths and recycled timber furniture make up the eclectic interior that is warm/​comfortable enough to avoid a style over substance error.
A front bar room separates into a smaller dining room, band room (rotating playlist of local/​national acts) and rear courtyard. The week starts at Workers Club on Monday nights with $ 2 pots until 10pm, after six of these you will barely notice the décor anyway. The DJ plays a mix best described as «random» think 90s grunge/​80s pop/​70s synth rock/​current tunes and draws a uni crowd.
The rest of the week is more relaxed, returning to a local pub good for a beer. The food is decent but the alcohol is kind of the attraction. The wine/​beer list is well considered and there is everyone’s favourite cider in four different flavours.
Fridays and Saturdays expect live music and the return of the party vibe, good for a fun local evening.

Oh, The Workers Club, with your consistently good range of tap beers, your big bowls of fries with aioli, your 70s Swedish lounge-​like décor, your roster of record-​smart DJs in the front bar, your heater above the back table that keeps me warm when I get there early enough to take it over, your truly excellent band room, your weird unisex bathroom with industrial taps that only seem to turn to full and splash water all over me, your back-​alley beer garden that makes me not able to escape people I don’t like but also rub up against people I do, your new private dining and cocktail room called Sideshow that makes me aim to be wealthier and have more friends, your chipper and attractive staff… Let me count the ways.

The Workers Club is a small pub and music venue in the heart of Fitzroy. It has front bar for general punters that has a cosy, laid back feel to it that makes it a great place as a casual hang-​out with friends or for knock off drinks (though you’d maybe feel a little uncomfortable in a business suit due to the chilled vibe and the ever-​present hipster contingent of the bar’s clientele).
On Monday nights there are $ 2 pots and cheap jugs of beer, so you’re unlikely to get a seat unless you’re there early and be warned that the crowd on this night is seriously young (i.e. you will feel like a dad playing chaperone if you’re over 25). There is also a DJ in the front bar on several nights, so it can get a bit rowdy and drunk girls WILL fall on you (which may or may not be a selling point). The back part of the bar is a sectioned off music venue that you generally have to pay to enter and can occasionally score a good band.
There is a cramped outdoor/​smoking section, which is so small that it’s a bit frustrating to negotiate.
The Workers Club is very ‘Melbourne’ in every way, and is worth checking out.

I was expecting this to be a deep down and dirty Workman’s dive pub. On the outside it looks just so — as I believe until relatively recently this is probably the kind of drinking establishment that had carpets that smell so much like beer that you could pour a glass of water on them and use a sponge to soak up an alcoholic beverage of about 5% alcohol content .
Well it turns out my imagination ran away with me here — as much as it appears to have run away with the interior designer that very clearly decorated the Workers Club. The front room is lined in wooden pine panels, with a back room laid out for dining. Through the side of the building there is a strange little space decorated in carpets from floor to roof much like an old cinema leading out to a live music space.
The Workers Club is now every part the trendy Fitzroy establishment with a well thought out menu and an extensive list of boutique beers and wines. It has regular live music shows and even the odd art exhibition.

The Workers Club’s name and exterior may say: stale old man pub but its interior and clientele quite audibly say: painfully hipster Melbourne bar/​art space. I reluctantly visited The Workers Club on Friday for a drink or two with friends and was pleasantly surprised if a little confounded by this place.
Boasting a ‘public bar, band room, side bar and outdoor courtyard’, The Workers Club’s décor can only be described as diverse. Or schizophrenic. Depending on how generous you’re feeling. The front bar is clean and modern, the side bar more intimate and cavernous, while the gig space quite frankly verges on ramshackle. Then there are the adjoining corridors, which can only be likened to a New Zealand airport under construction.
My friends and I ordered a glass or two of wine from The Workers Club’s nice drinks menu and perched at a table in what can only be described as the pub’s very own carpeted grotto — yes, carpeted grotto — which lies adjacent to the band room.
Despite its unusual appearance, The Workers Club is a pretty cool pub with an interesting live music line-​up, the occasional esoteric art exhibition and real potential. Just stay in the infinitely more elegant front bar unless you have a thing for carpeted walls. Or construction sites.