The couple behind a cosy British pub strike again with The Flying Fox

Snug and intimate, this new Richmond venue follows on from the Lion & Wombat in St Kilda. Expect top-notch pies, Welsh rarebit in doughnut form and sport on the telly.

“We’ve had a few people ask us that question,” says Alex Back, owner of The Flying Fox, a cosy eating and drinking house he and wife Sophie Machin have just opened on Bridge Road.

This is the pair’s second venue, following on from the popular Lion & Wombat in St Kilda, which opened three years ago as a tribute to British pubs.

“When we moved from the UK back to Australia, we missed that British-style local public house, somewhere snug and intimate,” says Back, who has worked in English and Scottish restaurants and pubs since he was a teenager.

“Richmond has amazing big pubs, but I don’t feel like it has anywhere like this.”

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The two-level venue housed Asian-fusion restaurant Kekou until mid-2025, but the new iteration instantly feels like it’s been in place for decades, thanks to Machin, a designer by training and a skilled op-shopper.

There’s plush English carpet in red swirls, a tufted leather banquette, an old church pew, and a handsome bar custom-crafted from Tasmanian oak by a carpenter who has built bars in Britain. The walls were painted five times to come up with the right sepia tone and artfully worn texture; they’re hung with old-timey prints and signs.

Downstairs, service is at the bar, where there’s Guinness on tap as well as local craft brews. High tables and a pool table run down the centre of the room. The upstairs bistro has timber floors, 50 seats, table service and its own oak bar. The same menu runs across both levels.

The Lion & Wombat has become known for its British food, including a popular Sunday roast. The Flying Fox is more of a place to drop in for a drink after work or on the way to the footy. Still, executive chef Nathan Babos has developed an appealing menu that riffs on English classics.

Welsh rarebit is refashioned as a doughnut oozing with cheese. House-made rye crumpet is served with pipis in ginger sauce. Scotch egg has smoked pork hock through its meat mixture and comes with sour cherry ketchup. Delicate dory fillet is smothered in peppercorn sauce.

Sunday roast is a feature here, too: beef rump, chicken, porchetta and cauliflower will be served with all the trimmings, and 120 people have already booked in for this Sunday.

When Good Food visited on Tuesday afternoon for an interview, locals were playing pool and keeping an eye on the World Cup soccer. “The idea of a public