The small pubs in places like Fitzroy and Collingwood are excellent, but are inhabited by wanker types. Except the Leinster Arms, which is Chopper Read's local. If the owners weren't such Collingwood FC fanatics, it'd be the near perfect pub.
I live 17 kilometers from the CBD, in Blackburn, my choices are much more limited. I avoid the Blackburn, the Burvale, the Mountain View, Villiage Green, the Manhatten, the Bayswater, and others like it like the plague.