Without wanting to evoke any particular theme song, everybody knows the value of a good neighbour. CityMag has found some neighbourly relationships that go beyond the stock-standard water-my- plants-while- I’m-away affair, like that of Union Street's Beg Your Pardon and Mr Goodbar.

“The dangerous thing [about] being next door is my consumption has sky rocketed,” laughs Michael Bois, owner of men’s clothing store Beg Your Pardon.

It was only three months ago that Mr Goodbar opened in the space next door to Michael, but almost instantly he and the bar’s owner, Goran Dedic, recognised each other as kindred spirits.

“I think it first started just by being thankful that there was a guy next door who we actually got along with really well,” Goran says.

“Up to that point, for me personally, there were… a few objections and [it] seemed like we were pushing shit uphill, [but] once we met I was very happy to have a neighbour that was on the same page and we knew we were going to work off of each other from day one.”

More than just a convenient spot for a knock-off tipple, Michael saw the warm aesthetic of the bar as the perfect waiting room, conveniently adjacent to his business.

“I do a lot of weddings, so I’ve got a groom and six groomsmen in the shop at any given time. They don’t fit at the shop, the shop’s quite small, so I like to check them over here,” Michael says.

“I’ll run across and grab them as I need them and it allows me to use this business as a go-to place to give me more space in my shop, but [also] generate business for him.

“And they’ll come back, and when they come back it works for me because they’ll remember me.”

Such is the allure of Mr Goodbar’s interior.

“When Goran has clients as well who value suiting and good clothing – they’re straight into my shop, and we have a conversation about it and I develop a relationship with people that I didn’t know.”

When it came time to find his bar staff uniforms that lived up to his impressive interior (designed by Studio Gram), Goran knew that the answer was only one door away.

“We were about to launch, the place was always going to look good and we wanted to make sure that the bar staff looked at their best, you know, looked sharp and it all tied into the same theme,” Goran says.

“Obviously Michael was the first person I approached.”

“I think it was unspoken,” Michael continues.

“I was like ‘yep, well I suppose I’m doing it’ and he was like ‘I suppose you’re doing it.’ It’s just how it is.”

Michael picked the fabrics, fitted the staff, and from there the two stores’ symbiosis evolved, and will continue to evolve, though what that will look like precisely, CityMag could not pressure them to say.

“There’s some things in the pipeline,” Michael hints.

“We haven’t fleshed it out yet… it’s early stages, but it’s exciting. It’s good.”

And clearly, it’s also good that these two found themselves next door to each other.