To celebrate summer (or whenever the warm weather decides to end for good) popular container bar Section 8 are hosting a Friday barbecue of footlong hotdogs.

Section 8 is one of my go-to venues for out of town visitors – it’s pretty hidden away in a Chinatown vacant lot, grungy cool in the way Melbourne does best and unusually designed, with seating on stacked wooden pallets, street art all over the brickwork and the bar housed in a graffitied shipping container. It’s the pop up bar that stayed.

During lunch times it seems to be particularly popular with RMIT students and smokers, being completely outdoors. Being neither a student or a smoker I was still lured there by the thought of an enormous sausage in a bun. Never mind that I was pushing a pram and feeding baby food to my hipster-to-be.

The barbecue is a simple grill affair cunningly designed from old supermarket trolleys and the sausages are freshly cooked to order.

For $7 you get a (fancy pants) spicy pork sausage from 40 year old Continental butchers R & G Russo on Lygon Street nestled in half a baguette from Brumbys (not so fancy pants). They recommend getting two sides to go with it ($1 each) with choices ranging from gherkins, pickles, Asian salsa and caramelised onions.

When they say footlong they really mean as long as your arm! Here’s a photo with a size comparison. It’s a messy, juicy affair but oh so good for filling the lunchtime gap. I recommend the very spicy Asian salsa with caramelised onions to temper the heat.

Friday BBQ, Section 8, 27-29 Tattersalls Lane, Melbourne +

12-3pm every Friday until summer ends

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