A historic Fremantle hotel gets reborn as an approachable pub run by seasoned operators, with terrific drinks and hip all-vinyl soundtrack, making for easy-going good times.
A career musician and two Perth hospitality veterans walk into a derelict Fremantle hotel and resolve to raise the historic P&O Hotel from the dead. The first stage of the resurrection process is Ode to Sirens, a sleek, multi-room bar with a cool ’60s bent and a love of both music and the port city it calls home. And because our three protagonists are Dan Goodsell, Adrian Fini and Nic Trimboli – experienced operators who have spent the past two decades opening key bars and restaurants around Perth – punters can expect plenty of substance to match the bar’s yesteryear Australiana style.
Big Yellow Taxi. Beasts of Bourbon. Sprit’ZZ Top. If these cocktail names didn’t give it away, the bartenders here have a real love of both music and puns. They also have the skills to knock up focused, balanced drinks that are anything but novelties. The apricot-hued Major Tom Collins sees the highball classic enriched with sloe gin and limoncello, while steeping cucumbers in South America’s pisco spirit imparts a wicked vegetal lift to the Martini-esque Pisco Inferno. As you’d expect from any Fremantle bar, beer is a focus, with the range covering everything from Aussie classics (Swan! Emu!) to maverick craft brews. Skin-contact whites, chilled reds and a bias towards low-intervention wines speak to the cellar’s modern aspirations, while vidiano, assyrtiko and a sweet muscat reference the bar’s Hellenic spirit.
