You might have noticed a few more hot dogs, black-and-white cookies and New York-style pizzas popping up in Melbourne over the past two weeks. As part of the MEL&NYC Festival, Melbourne Food and Wine Festival has brought some of New York's favourite street food to Melbourne – and it's here for just one more week.
If you love American sandwiches, head down to the forecourt of the NGV from 11am to 4pm Saturday and Sunday, August 11-12 to get a taste of the Big Apple at Beatbox Kitchen. The food truck will be dishing up an American-style cheeseburger, an eggplant parmigiana hero and a hot pastrami on rye.
Maker and Monger will be serving macaroni-and-cheese sandwiches, while Gary's Meats will be serving classic Coney Island hotdogs at Prahran Market on Sunday. For the true Coney Island experience, there will also be carnival games.
Other New York delights around Melbourne include: pastrami on rye at Fancy Hank's, a Coney Island chilli dog at Meatsmith, s'mores gelato at Pidapipo, and a black-and-white ice cream sandwich (drizzled with salted caramel and a popcorn, pretzel and bagel crumb) at Top Paddock.
Eight of Melbourne's favourite bars have also taken inspiration from New York, creating twists on American cocktails. Whisky and Alement has a twist on a Manhattan, called Manhattan on the Moon; Eau de Vie has a cocktail called City of Kings (fun fact: Brooklyn is in fact Kings County) made with Starward whisky; The Everleigh has created an '86 Manhattan', which is inspired by the 86 tram; Bad Frankie had a twist on the Rob Roy, called the Fitz Roy; Bar Americano has a coffee cocktail called a Carlton; Above Board has created a cocktail called the Smith & Perry, made with lemon myrtle-infused vermouth; you can get a Car Crash on Chapel at the Woods of Windsor (it's served atop a flamed parking ticket!); and Mr West has created a cocktail called the Melting Pot, which is topped with spiced sticky rice foam.