Shifty Chèvre: cheesy delights in Fitzroy

As far as I’m concerned there cannot be enough fine wine and great cheese places in Melbourne. Shifty Chèvre fits this most glorious of bills. The Shifty team, Tom, Noemi, and Alex, saved a prime location on Brunswick Street from becoming a Flight Centre (seriously?!) and transformed it into a gorgeous, dimly lit, ideal-date-night cheese bar by night/cafe by day.

Shifty Chèvre manages to bring affordable international and Australian cheese, with a focus on the goat variety, to Melbourne and we couldn’t be more grateful. On the media night I indulged in more than my fair share of raclette, which I think will be the hit of Melbourne’s winter. The dish is experiential and you cook it however you like — in my case gooey and oozing with flavour was the order of the day. For mine, there is scant better pleasure than devouring in a grilled cheese or four.

Photo courtesy of Shifty Chèvre

photo courtesy Shifty Chèvre

The venue itself has been refashioned from a ton of recycled timber courtesy of Rob’s day job in construction. A client even donated the door to the bathroom…which brings me to the bathroom. This place is something else and makes it into the top three restaurant bathrooms in Melbourne — yes, I rank them. Picture tropical rainforest in a toilet. I won’t publish a picture here, you’ll just have to go and visit for yourself (maybe buy some cheese first though). To top it off, the team also has comfy snuggle couches at the back and a quaint courtyard which will get a workout during the warmer months.

Photo courtesy of Shifty Chèvre

photo courtesy Shifty Chèvre

A lot of thought has been put into the setup of Shifty Chèvre. It’s a venue that fills a very nice niche on this side of town. Now with other fantastic cheese venues such as Spring St Grocer, La Niche and Milk The Cow completing the arc I think that Melbourne has cheese covered from most directions.

– Ruki

Shifty Chèvre
375 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy 3065
Shifty Chevre on Urbanspoon

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Disclosure: The Plus Ones attended Shifty Chèvre’s opening night courtesy of the venue.