There’s a lot to love about Melbourne’s hipster central. Yes, your rent may border on extortion - but only being a short bike ride away from your local pub, a great coffee spot, or vintage fashion store makes it all worthwhile. If you happen to be lucky enough to live Northside, or spend a considerable amount of time in that neck of the woods, a few of these are sure to sound familiar.
Here are 28 things that are SO northside... Maybe you could get them inked in a vintage font at East Brunswick Tattoo?
1. Getting an excited chill when you stumble across Rone’s latest piece of laneway street art.
2. Attending too many gigs at the Northcote Social Club.
3. Anytime you have to walk somewhere more than 100m away, taking a traveller. Craft beer in a paper bag preferred.
4. You’re in a band.
5. Your housemates are in a band.
6. At one point or another dying your hair a pastel shade.
7. Owning five pairs of Dejour jeans, and four of them are black.
8. Having tattoo (or ten) from Third Eye.
9. House party DJs that play Cut Copy one minute, and Mariah Carey the next.
10. If you’re a guy, you’ve pretty much only had your haircut at Electric Brain or Dr Follicles. As a result, you’re also constantly mistaken in Fitzroy for every other guy who has your haircut and a beard.
11. Sourcing all your clothes from Savers on Sydney Rd. Pairing them back with your black thick rimmed glasses.
12. Hating that Smith St has become so busy because of Gelato Messina, but also popping in for the salted caramel and white chocolate every second night.
13. Texting friends to meet you for cheap beers and great bands at The Workers Club on Monday nights.
14. Spending an entire afternoon looking for the burger karma sutra graffiti in Brunswick that was supposedly meant to be banned. Instagramming it immediately.
15. Thinking that a Sunday well spent consists of pawing through the record stores along Brunswick/Gertrude/Smith Street.
16. Subscribing to a cold-drip coffee club.
17. In the Summer, all of your money goes to music festivals. Worth it.
18. Living in a falling-apart shoe-box share house that costs you an arm and a leg. Worth it.
19. Getting caught in the tram tracks on your fixie and axing yourself in front of a packed #86.
20. Knowing that the Merri Creek Trail is the most zen way to reconnect with nature. Plus it’s less busy than Eddy Gardens...
21. Falling in love with the dogs that patiently wait outside of Piedimonte’s every time you go grocery shopping.
22. Knowing that the hardest decision you have to make on the weekend is where to go for breakfast.
23. The Shadow Electric is your outdoor cinema/party venue of choice.
24. Drinking absinthe, rolling cigarettes, and indulging in fried chicken in the wee hours at Le Bon Ton frequently.
25. Spending your early 20s getting a good feed from Green Refectory.
26. Having no patience for shit coffee. Unless it's at a pop up cafe.
27. Looking for a new cafe/bar you heard about, and when you can’t find it, looking for 20 fixies parked out the front of a derelict warehouse with no sign.
28. Never wearing activewear. Even to the gym.
Want more northside action? Here's our guide to the north on two wheels!
Photo credit: 813