Pure South on Southbank recently renovated, but that’s not the hatted-restaurant's main lure. The venue focuses solely on produce sourced directly from farmers and providers in and around Tasmania. The building's renovations extend to the venue’s approach – service has been rebadged towards more casual eating, with the fine-diner upstairs balanced by the bar-feel downstairs. To show off, every Sunday Pure South is offering Stella Artois on tap paired with treats from the deep, including Huon ocean trout and lime tacos; king crab, salmon and avocado brioche buns, or St Helens oysters. Fresh. Pure Southbroadsheet.com.au

Concept bar Pawn & Co has also had itself a makeover. Shifting from South Yarra to Prahran, the hospo favourite has gone steampunk, placing it somewhere between a pawn shop and a dive bar from Blade Runner. The two central tenets remain the same: you can get a beer here and (nearly) everything you can see, touch or taste is for sale. A New Steampunk Bar in the Southbroadsheet.com.au

Staying south, everything at new St Kilda Road cafe The Alley – from the butter to the Maple Bacon Burger – is vegan. It’s the brainchild of Alexandra Pyke, formerly of New York restaurant The Fat Radish, who wants to prove eating plants and vegetables can be just as satisfying as eating meat. The Alleybroadsheet.com.au

Once a month, the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen runs its Makers’ Market, an eclectic mix of art, design and handcrafted goods presented in collaboration with Rose Street Artists’ Market. This month it's on Saturday May 13. You know that's the day before Mother's Day, don't you? Which makes it an ideal occasion for a day trip with mum. While you’re there wander the gallery and finish with a celebratory drink at the onsite cafe and bar. Heide Makers' Marketheide.com.au

Melbourne artist Louise Klerks is the co-founder and gallery director of non-profit art space Chapter House Lane, and has been teaching life drawing for nearly a decade. She’s built a dedicated following but encourages first-timers. Klerks is currently running life-drawing classes at The Nicholas Building in the CBD, every Monday to Wednesday from 7pm to 9pm. No bookings required, just turn up. Louise Klerks’ Life Drawinlife-drawing.com.au

Want to broaden your kitchen repertoire while supporting a good cause? Free to Feed is a pop-up cooking school taught by asylum seekers and refugees. There are four teachers, hailing from Sri Lanka, Iran and Syria, who run classes at different cafes around Melbourne. Learn everything from samosas to tabbouleh. Free to Feedfreetomelbourne.org

The dipping temperature gauge means just one thing – the temperature is going down. That’s how a temperature gauge works. But it also signifies an excellent time to go to the movies. Palace Cinemas has masterfully foreshadowed this seasonal occurrence and programmed an American Essentials film festival during May. Drawn from some of the best new independent movies emerging from the US, along with classics from the likes of David Lynch, Woody Allen and Mike Nichols, the festival heaves with features, documentaries, thrillers, adventures, cult flicks and more. Opening night sees the premiere of 20th Century Women, the latest film by Mike Mills (Thumbsucker, Beginners), preceded by live entertainment, Stella Artois, and canapés. American Essentials runs May 11–24 at Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth and The Astor Theatre. Book ticketsamericanessentials.com.au

A spacious new indoor rock-climbing venture has opened in Brunswick. North Walls is a gym that offers something a little more exciting than running on a treadmill. With distinctive blue, black and white patterned walls, it’s like scaling a vast, 14-metre high Cubist painting. There’s also an onsite cafe with coffee from North Melbourne’s Bailey Coffee, and its own fruit-flavoured isotonic sports drinks. North Wallsbroadsheet.com.au

Also newly open is Holey Moley, an indoor mini-golf bar. You can putt away on a 27-hole course – one hole begins by navigating your ball through a refurbished pinball table. From there the ball drops onto a foosball table, and becomes a two-player game: whoever scores gets a bonus point. All the while you can sip on a beer. Holy indeed. First Look: Holey Moleybroadsheet.com.au

One of Melbourne’s best party bands are doing the Night Cat in Fitzroy. From a scrappy, percussion-heavy four piece, NO ZU has grown to become an eight-strong whirlwind of bongos, brass, rubbery basslines and heroic female chanting. Riffing on the blueprint of early 1980s New York acts, Liquid Liquid and ESG, the band’s humid Afterlife was one of 2016’s best albums. They’re playing two shows at the Night Cat to celebrate the launch of a 12” remix EP of that album, as well as to mark the band’s 10-year anniversary show. May 12 and 13. Don’t sleep. NO ZU at the Night Cateventbrite.com.au

From May 4 to 18, a handful of Melbourne cinemas and galleries are being taken over by the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival, an annual look at how art and film can reflect the realities of the world around us. There’s a huge range of intriguing and engaging work on offer: from a story of disenfranchised fisherman in 1930s Mexico to a refugee living in present day Wagga Wagga. Our pick is powerful refugee documentary, Fire at Sea, screening at ACMI with a live score by Melbourne musician Evelyn Morris (Pikelet). Human Rights Arts and Film Festival2017.hraff.org.au

Artist Patrick Pound doesn’t take photographs, he collects them. For decades Pound has scoured pawn shops and online auction houses for photos most people would consider junk, and built a fascinating legacy from a seemingly random collection. His vast NGV show The Great Exhibition (running until July 30) displays more than 4000 of his photos and found objects along with priceless works from the NGV collection. The oldest thing is an Egyptian comb, which dates back to around 1500 BC. The most recent is a newspaper clipping from February. Patrick Pound's Unmissable NGV Showbroadsheet.com.au

Also at the NGV this month is a new exhibition from Vincent Van Gogh, the world’s most celebrated Post-Impressionist painter. Van Gogh and the Seasons (running until July 9) is a world-first show that groups the artist’s work by season. Those books from your high-school art class don’t do it justice – see in person why the Dutch painter’s legacy is so enduring. Better still, move after work Friday drinks to the NGV, where you can get a ticket for an NGV Friday night, see Van Gogh, drink a beer and catch musical performances from the likes of UK noir-pop icon Gemma Ray, Arnhem Land singer-songwriter Gawurra, or The Drones’ frontman Gareth Liddiard. So Melbourne. Van Gogh and the Seasonsngv.vic.gov.au