Coffee. Books. Cheese. Records. A movie. Maybe a sauna. Melbourne has decided it’s raining sideways, but cancelling the day would be a terrible waste of an outfit.

Rain on Chapel Street is not a reason to stay home.

If anything, it gives you permission to slow things down.

Have the second coffee. Spend far too long in the bookshop. Disappear into a market. Watch a movie in the middle of the afternoon. Order a glass of wine while the windows fog up outside.

This is Melbourne, after all.

Waiting for perfect weather could take months.

So grab an umbrella, wear shoes you trust and consider this your rainy-day game plan.

START SOMEWHERE WARM

First requirement: coffee.

Second requirement: somewhere you don’t immediately feel pressured to head back into the weather.

In Prahran, Dear Lucia Cafe at 199 Chapel Street makes a particularly good starting point.

The neighbourhood café is built around the idea of slowing down over food and coffee, so give the rain a chance to do its thing while breakfast does its thing.

Order breakfast.

Order coffee.

Look thoughtfully out the window as though you had always intended to spend the morning this way.

The umbrella can wait.

ENTER THE BOOKSHOP. LOSE TRACK OF TIME.

When there’s rain on the pavement, browsing suddenly becomes an activity.

A few doors up, Dymocks at 269–271 Chapel Street gives you a reason not to rush anywhere.

Go in for one book.

Come out with a novel, a cookbook, something you intend to read “on holiday” and a gift for someone whose birthday is three months away.

Rainy-day efficiency.

The Prahran store is currently trading seven days a week, so it’s an easy anchor for a wet-weather wander.

THEN GO LOOK FOR SOMETHING YOU DEFINITELY DON’T NEED

Just down Chapel Street, Chapel Street Bazaar is exactly where you want to be when the weather removes any urgency from the day.

Inside you’ll find a sprawling collection of vintage pieces, collectables, records, furniture, clothing, cameras, toys, homewares and objects that resist straightforward categorisation.

This is not a five-minute browse.

That’s the point.

You may discover a vintage jacket.

You may discover a lamp.

You may spend fifteen minutes trying to work out whether an obscure piece of crockery is fantastic or hideous.

Either way, it has stopped raining on you.

WHEN IN DOUBT, GO TO THE MARKET

Rainy day + Prahran = market.

Prahran Market gives you an entire covered food playground to wander through while the weather carries on outside.

You can shop for ingredients for an extremely ambitious dinner you may or may not cook.

You can pick up something sweet.

You can buy cheese.

You can simply follow whichever smell wins.

And if lunch needs to involve melted cheese, which seems entirely reasonable given the conditions, Maker and Monger – Melbourne Cheese Shop is right inside the market.

Cheese toastie.

Rain outside.

No further questions.

Prahran Market is currently open Tuesday and Thursday through Sunday, so if your rainy-day adventure falls on Monday or Wednesday, skip ahead to the next part of the plan.

MAKE A VERY SMALL DASH TO GREVILLE STREET

We’re not asking you to hike.

We’re asking you to cross a few wet footpaths in the name of chocolate and records.

Entirely different proposition.

At 126 Greville Street, URKU Chocolate Shop gives you handcrafted chocolate and a very convincing excuse to add something sweet to proceedings.

Then keep moving down Greville to Greville Records at number 152.

The record store has been part of Melbourne’s music-shopping landscape for decades, and a rainy afternoon is exactly when flicking through vinyl makes sense.

You don’t need a turntable to enjoy this section.

Although you may leave believing you need one.

OR STOP FIGHTING THE WEATHER ENTIRELY

At some point, you could simply decide that being damp is no longer part of the day’s agenda.

Enter Navia Bathhouse – Prahran.

The Nordic-inspired bathhouse at 233 Chapel Street has saunas, steam, magnesium bathing and cold plunges, built around a heat-cold-rest cycle.

Admittedly, voluntarily getting into cold water when you have spent the morning avoiding cold water sounds contradictory.

There is apparently context.

More importantly, there are saunas.

Navia is currently open from early morning until late every day, so you can make it the centrepiece of the afternoon rather than squeezing it in around everything else.

Rain outside.

Sauna inside.

Melbourne has finally been outsmarted.

FIND A TABLE YOU DON’T NEED TO LEAVE

If you’ve spent the day dodging rain, dinner should involve settling in.

Across from Prahran Market, Don’s is made for exactly this kind of evening.

It’s a laid-back neighbourhood wine bar where food, wine and staying for another glass all make considerably more sense than checking the rain radar every six minutes.

Take a seat.

Order something good.

Let the windows fog up.

Don’s is currently trading through the week, with longer sessions from Friday into the weekend.

STILL RAINING?

Excellent.

You now have an excuse for one more stop.

If you’ve made your way towards South Yarra, head upstairs to Katuk at 517A Chapel Street.

Low lighting, couches and cocktails are a considerably better environment for rain than standing at a tram stop pretending your umbrella hasn’t turned inside out.

Settle in.

Order a drink.

The rain can leave first.

Katuk is currently open seven nights a week.

THE RAINY-DAY RULES

Bring an umbrella you won’t mourn if Chapel Street wind destroys it.

Wear shoes capable of dealing with a puddle you incorrectly estimated.

Don’t over-plan.

Check Prahran Market’s trading days.

And leave some room between stops.

A rainy day works better when you’re not sprinting from booking to booking.

MELBOURNE WEATHER: 0. CHAPEL STREET: 1.

The funny thing about Chapel Street in the rain is that very little of the good stuff actually disappears.

The coffee is still hot.

The market is still full.

The records still need flicking through.

The cheese still melts.

The movies still start.

The wine still pours.

You might arrive home with a slightly damp coat and three things you weren’t planning to buy.

But you won’t have wasted the day.

And really, that’s the whole point.