Bar Copains
Bar Copains
Beau Bar
Bar Copains, Surry Hills
Bar Copains is a culmination of a decades-long friendship – with a deeply personal and vast wine collection, and an evolving menu by a masterful chef. A significant proportion of what’s in Bar Copains’ cellar comes from the personal collections of co-owners Morgan McGlone (Sunday, ex-Belle’s Hot Chicken) and Nathan Sasi (founding chef at Nomad, Mercado and Adelaide’s Leigh Street Wine Room. Not everything is on-site, but there’s a delicious selection taking in small producers and classic Australian wines, with plenty of natural wines and super-rare drops. Sasi is in the kitchen, and his menu is constantly shifting. Recent dishes include a coral trout with brown butter, lemon and capers and Shark Bay scallops served on the shell with Café de Paris butter. When we visited, an ideal accompaniment to a chablis or chardonnay included Sydney rock oysters from the South Coast served with mignonette and anchovy toast, plus choux buns filled with Comté custard.
Charles Bar, CBD
This handsome all-day wine bar opened in the CBD late last year. It’s the sister venue to the opulent Charles Brasserie and luxe basement bar Tiva, and evokes old-world European drinking and dining dens. The bar is intimate, with wood-panelled walls, warm lights, lowered ceilings and cosy banquette seating. Get into oysters with mignonette, chicken liver parfait or kingfish crudo to accompany a Martini or carafe of wine. The wine list, by director of wine Paolo Saccone (ex-Mimi’s, Flying Fish) is 600-strong, featuring mainly French and Australian producers. Cocktails by Jonothan Carr (The Gidley) include the Reverse Martini – a lighter, sweeter take on the classic, made with Lillet Blanc, gin and bitters. And you’ll also find traditional sips like Gimlets, Margaritas and Old Fashioneds, as well as vodka or gin Martinis with all the accoutrements.
Lil Sis, Chippendale
Set within two 19th-century terraces, Lil Sis is a charming riff on the caves a vin (wine cellars) of Paris. Punters can shop bottles from a global array of producers whose focus is on sustainability and making biodynamic and organic wines. They’re all hand-chosen by Zoe Brunton, Monopole’s former head sommelier. Visitors can pick up a bottle of Lucy Margaux fizz or Dormilona rosé to take home or to a dinner party. But they can also park up at a communal table in the ground-floor shop or on a leather banquette in the upstairs bar, where DJs spin French-inspired lounge disco till late. The retro-chic upstairs bar is the perfect spot to hole up for snacks and a couple of bottles. Go light with a gilda (skewered olive, lemon, anchovy and guindilla) or Ortiz anchovies with warm sourdough, or hit the cheese and charcuterie menus, which include Pino’s saucisson sec, sliced-to-order LP’s hot salami cotto, Vanella ricotta and Maffra cheddar. For a truly ideal drinking food, opt for the Heinz spaghetti and cheddar jaffle.
Beau Bar, Surry Hills
Enter via the back lane for the Nomad crew’s latest venue – an intimate, moody space where a dramatic glass-fronted wine wall backdrops the bar. Wine director Ged Bellis spent the past year visiting small producers and sipping unusual varietals all over the world, finding several hundred bottles to fill the temperature-controlled cabinets. Highlights include Beaujolais gamay from Jean Foillard (part of the region’s famous Gang of Four, a group of pioneering natural winemakers), GD Vajra Piedmont nebbiolo blend and Baby Bandito chenin blanc from Swartland, South Africa. For those not ready to commit to a bottle, there are wines on tap, all made in New South Wales. Keeping these drinks good company is a menu big on fresh seafood: raw fish tabouli wrapped in a sesame leaf and accompanied by a manoush cracker; grilled cuttlefish with chickpea puree and parsley sauce; and lobster thermidor – a classic French – served with a baked tomato and saffron rice.
25 Jul 2023
25 Jul 2023
21 Jul 2023
19 Jul 2023