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Drinks Directory|Recently opened|After work drinks|Sydney – Inner West

Bar Planet

Monday: 5:00 PM – 12:00 AM
16 Enmore Road, Newtown, NSW, 2042
Website
barplanet.com.au
Instagram
@barplanetbar

Read time 4 Mins

Posted 19 Jun 2022

By
Matty Hirsch

A busy scene at Bar Planet in Sydney

This neighbourhood bar by some of the city’s savviest operators celebrates the Martini in cosmic style with a tight list of Antipodean craft spirits served by unfailingly friendly staff.

Martinis are a specialty at Bar Planet in Sydney
Why you go

Sydney is no stranger to specialist bars – gin joints, whisky dens, tiki haunts, brewery taprooms abound. But a dedicated Martini bar? That’s something new. And it’s hard to imagine a duo more suited to making it happen than Jeremy Blackmore and Alex Dowd. After all, these are the dudes who took our appreciation of tequila to another level with the opening of Tio’s Cerveceria in 2012 and followed it up with their unrivalled monument to mezcal, Cantina OK! 

Now they’re looking to write a new chapter for the quintessential “drinker’s drink” by reimagining it in a more approachable, interactive and whimsical light. Here, the Martinis are available in half-sized portions in good old-fashioned form or topped up with soda – served complete with a personalised keepsake coaster that details just how you like it (dry, wet, dirty, etc). The tight selection of strictly Antipodean craft spirits adds interest, and unfailingly friendly service makes it hard to stop at just one. It’s a winning and welcome addition to the Harbour City’s bar landscape.

Why you stayProps to marketing director Daisy Tulley and art director Clayton Ciolac for choosing to steer clear of kitschy extraterrestrial atmospherics. Instead, they’ve created an inviting and rather timeless space that relies on the dependable warmth of exposed bricks, timber Venetian blinds, flickering candles and towering vases of fresh flowers. Save for the wavy, oversized wrought-iron lamps, it’s an understated affair that keeps the focus on the drinks and the company, and there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Extra little touches will stick with you – free sparkling water, say, or the tear-off paper menus signed by the staff, who also jot down the current flavour of the house-made sorbet used in a refreshing twist on Italy’s Sgroppino cocktail. Good times are guaranteed, but you’ll want to stay for a long time, too.
What drink to orderBegin at the top of the list with a namesake Bar Planet Martini. It’s made not with vodka or gin, but something of a hybrid called the Infinite Spirit that’s distilled at Poor Toms in Marrickville and infused with a custom blend of botanicals and local produce picked by the team, such as heritage apples from Borrodell Estate in Orange, New South Wales. Each season a different batch is produced and added to what’s left of the current lot, resulting in an ever-changing “mother” of sorts that keeps transforming the taste of the cocktail. Out there, sure, but very cool. And even cooler when you see it emerge from the freezer in a striking Spanish carafe called a “porrón” and watch it being poured from great height into your glass, then garnished with a nifty little olive stuffed with lemon-zest jelly. A little bit of theatre, and a whole lot of fun.
One of the cocktails served at Bar Planet
Bar planet restaurant and bar, sydney
Why we love itIt’s refreshing and inspiring to see such a startlingly young team behind a bar, running the show and absolutely rocking it the way the troupe does here. They’re armed with a degree of skill and expertise that can only come from years spent at top-tier institutions like Shady Pines Saloon, Bulletin Place and Baxter Inn. What really leaves a lasting impression, however, is just how humble they are, and how effortlessly they make you feel right at home. (The lightning speed with which they replace the complimentary bags of habit-forming spiced popcorn certainly helps.)
Regular’s tipThere’s virtue in arriving early, not long after the wooden door opens at 4pm when it’s still quiet, so you can bask in the smugness that comes with ordering a Martini while the sun’s still shining. Having the place pretty much to yourself also affords you the opportunity to spend some time getting lost in the dazzling bar top. It’s a brass-rimmed, painstakingly detailed stretch of terrazzo by Aussie artist David Humphries, speckled with jade, marble, coloured glass and surfboard resin, made to look like a mythical galaxy – and it’s well and truly out of this world.
Who to takeGiven the rather narrow drinks offer, those with a fondness for Martinis should be first on your list. That said, if there was ever a spot to convert anyone who’s still on the fence about this most classic and enduring of cocktails, then this sure as heck is it.
Bar planet bar ambiance and people
image credits: Nikki To
Authour image
Matty HirschMatty Hirsch is a Sydney-based writer, critic and editor whose work has appeared in Time Out, Delicious and Gourmet Traveller.
Tags
Drinks DirectoryWheelchair accessibleRecently openedSpecialty BarBarPet friendlyCasual catch-upKiller cocktailsSydney – Inner WestSydneyAfter work drinksDate night
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