Zagame's House

The name in white neon script along the roof of Zagame's House is the family's, and for sixteen years so was the budget motel underneath it, on the corner of Lygon and Queensberry streets. In 2019 Victor and Robert Zagame reopened it after an A$18 million overhaul. The building is dressed in black, with a black-and-white zigzag mural climbing its walls at pavement level, so after dark the corner is hard to miss. Inside, four artists made their commissions on site, one of them Lulu Zagame, the name on the roof again, and the corridors are lined with psychedelic work. The rooms are quieter: grey felt on the wall behind the bed, brass lamps and round mirrors framed in timber, and in the twins a woven screen that slides across to close off the basin.

Recommended for anyone who would rather stay in Carlton than the CBD, and pay under £150 a night for it. Lygon Street is Carlton's Little Italy, with King & Godfree's grocery and deli a short walk along it and Queen Victoria Market as close, and breakfast is downstairs at Zagame Bros Coffee Co. Families get a free cot in most rooms, and a paid extra bed for a child in the Deluxe Corner King, which makes that the room to book. There is no pool, and the hotel sends swimmers to Carlton Baths. From Tuesday to Saturday, Lord Lygon, the wine bar, sets out Chris Bonello's small plates along a bar of Rosso Levanto marble in deep pinks and maroons, with some 300 wines to choose from. The bottles are sold to take away too, and for anyone staying, away is the lift.