Footscray's Littlefoot Bar and Up in Smoke have also reported vandalism. Roshan Nijar, co-owner of Up In Smoke, stands behind his bar. Credit:Jason South Display suites for new apartment developments in the suburb have also been vandalised, with someone spray-painting "f--- off yuppies" across them. Desmond Huynh​, Rudimentary's owner, said the meat was so rotten he couldn't tell which animal it came from. The bag was thrown over the cafe's fence two days before New Year's, bouncing into the front door. Staff said it took days for the stench to go away.

Mr Huynh said no obvious link could be drawn between the rotten meat and the anti-hipster attack at 8bit over the New Year's weekend. He said the 8bit vandalism was likely the result of some bored kids, rather than a targeted attack. Sharon Kanna, manager of the Footscray Hotel, with Sugar, the pub's official mascot. Credit:Jason South When Littlefoot opened two years ago it was repeatedly plastered with anti-gentrification slogans criticising the business owners as profit-seeking hipsters pricing locals out of the market. At Up in Smoke, a barbecue joint in Hopkins Street, "yuppies" was scrawled in huge yellow paint on the side of the building. Roshan Nijar with some of the anti-hipster graffiti on his Footscray restaurant Credit:Jason South

Co-owner Roshan Nijar​ had the slur scrubbed off, but it still shows faintly on the side of his building. He thought the tagging was just the result of bored kids, but the 8bit attack has him worried. "It looks like the same people [that attacked us]," he said. "Our first thought were they were just kids in the area, mucking about. But that 8bit one was more serious than just tagging." But if they are after hipsters, why attack Up in Smoke, Mr Nijar asks.

"We're not really hipsters, none of us are," he said. Only 100 metres up the road from Mr Nijar's black-and-copper smokehouse squats the ancient Footscray Hotel. The front bar now looks on directly to a new apartment block, and more are going up down the road. "This is one of the last old-fashioned pubs in the area," said a customer with a long white beard who identified himself as "Santa", as he waited for the bartender to pour him a drink. Eight pubs have closed down in Footscray in the last 10 years, he said. The bartender paused to think how the suburb had changed. "We don't get no trouble from anyone any more," he said. "All the younger crowd are very respectful."

Loading Sharon Kanna​, the pub's manager, wanders in carrying a huge Christmas ham, bought on discount. She's as old-Footscray as they come, but she likes the new vibe. "A lot of them down here want to to stick to the old ways. They don't like nothing new," she said.