The Last Jar holds down the corner of Elizabeth and Queensberry streets at the top of the Melbourne CBD, and it does the one thing a good Irish pub has to do before anything else: it pours a slow, settled Guinness and gives you a reason to stay for a second. Around that pour it runs trad music sessions and the sport, which is how it earns a place on a sports-bar trail.
The address is 616 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, on the North Melbourne edge of the city grid a short tram ride from the markets. Time Out describes it as an Irish gastro pub that takes its music and its kitchen seriously, and that is the right read. Wednesday and Sunday nights are traditional sessions where anyone can pull up a chair and play, in the open style you would find back in Ireland, per the venue's own account. When the GAA, the Six Nations or a Premier League fixture is on, the screens come down and the room turns to the sport, which lands it on the Melbourne sports bars shortlist for the top of town.
The room is a long, dark-timber pub built for talking and listening rather than spectacle. Booths down one side, a serious bar down the other, and the kind of low warm light that makes a winter afternoon disappear. There is no rooftop and no pretence; the appeal is the pour, the players in the corner and the match on the wall. That focus is exactly why regulars treat it as the city's reliable Irish room.
What to order: a pint of Guinness first, poured in two parts and worth the ninety-second wait, at around twelve to thirteen Australian dollars. Add a measure from the Irish whiskey shelf if the night is settling in. The kitchen runs above standard pub food, so the beef and Guinness pie or the fish and chips, both landing in the low-to-mid twenties, are the orders that match the room.
The crowd is CBD workers early, a music crowd on session nights, and a knot of GAA and rugby supporters whenever Ireland is playing at a sensible Melbourne hour. It fills on session evenings and big match mornings, and stays steady through a Friday after work. Time Out and the City of Melbourne's What's On both flag the live music as the draw, which is exactly how the back booths read on a Wednesday.
Who it is for: the drinker who rates a proper Guinness pour over a flashy fit-out, the trad-music fan, and the expat chasing the GAA or a Six Nations kickoff. It sits well on a north-CBD pub crawl, so line it up with Young and Jackson by Flinders Street for the heritage corner or the Sporting Globe Bar and Grill for the dedicated screen count. Our guide to the best sports bars in Melbourne sets the wider scene, with more across the Melbourne bar guide.
Best time to go is a Wednesday or Sunday evening for the trad session, or a weekend morning when a northern-hemisphere fixture pulls the supporters in early. Avoid expecting a quiet pint during a session night, when the music is the point and the room fills around it.
Context rounds out the picture. Melbourne carries a deep Irish pub tradition, and the Last Jar earns its corner by keeping the craft intact: a careful pour, live players and the sport that matters to its crowd, without dressing any of it up. Marcus Webb rates it as the top-of-town Irish room to send a homesick fan to, the one where the Guinness is right, the session is real and the match is on the wall.
Sources: The Last Jar official site (thelastjar.com.au); Time Out Melbourne; City of Melbourne What's On listing; OpenTable venue page (616 Elizabeth St).
