The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

Dead Ringer

Callan Boys
Callan Boys

Dead Ringer has blond wood so fresh it still smells like a pine forest.
Dead Ringer has blond wood so fresh it still smells like a pine forest.Christopher Pearce

Modern Australian

Bacardi has stopped selling Breezers in Australia. I know, I know. What's the world coming to? It actually happened late in 2014, but I figure this is an item to anyone over the age of 18 who isn't prone to binge drinking diabetes in a bottle.

If you find yourself affected by this news and suddenly long for the days of sloppy school-dance pashing, fret not, brothers and sisters: Dead Ringer is bringing back the Breezer.

There's something wonderful about Rob Sloan and Tim  Philips from Bulletin Place (Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2015 Bar of the Year) opening a new venue with a signature drink inspired by something you wouldn't touch at 5am on a bender (but probably have). The Yuzu Breezer ($17) is a pre-mix of Tsuru-Ume yuzu liqueur, Aperol, citric acid and rum, topped up with soda and served in a 150-millilitre  bottle resplendent with a Dead Ringer-branded Breezer label.

Advertisement
Beef tartare with pickled eggplant.
Beef tartare with pickled eggplant.Christopher Pearce

"We just rang up Bacardi and asked if we could make our own version of the old label," says Sloan. "They were totally fine with it." Bacardi should be more than fine with it, too. The fancy Breezer is terrific, with a spot-on balance of sweet, sour and zing.

All the cocktails are terrific actually, and not one of them feels like an afterthought. Mixmaster David Hobbs (ex-Seamtress, Melbourne and Milk & Honey, London) has come on board as the "third leg of the tripod" and the team runs a damn tight ship.

Dead Ringer is a smart, clean and grown-up joint inside with green tiles, Boston ferns and a blond wood bar that is so fresh it still smells like a pine forest. There's a separate dining room that can cater to large groups, however as the weather warms up you'll want to be imbibing outdoors at the kind of sun-dappled tables that turn a quick drink into a long lunch.

Dead Ringer in Surry Hills.
Dead Ringer in Surry Hills.Christopher Pearce
Advertisement

It's exactly where you want to knock back a Nomad golden ale ($10) before sipping on something like the Pineapple Adonis ($15), featuring fino sherry infused with pineapple skins, sweet vermouth and a garnish of "pineapple jerky" that I would like a whole bag of, please and thank you. For a bit of fun, there's the Red Dinger ($17) where gin is steeped in Allen's Redskins (the best) and served in a tall glass with raspberry drinking vinegar and blood orange.

Sloan stresses the cocktails are designed to be food tolerant rather than food matching ("there's no drink that works better with food for me than a glass of wine"). He's dead right, too –  would you rather tuck into rosy-pink Macleay Valley lamb rump ($34) with a passionfruit daiquiri or a bottle of Garagiste pinot noir ($67) from the Mornington Peninsula?

The food, brought to you by ex-Farmhouse and Est chef Tristan Rosier, is bloody good. Elsewhere on the carte is creamed almonds laced with grapes and sesame seeds ($8), black sausage with kohlrabi, okra and and yoghurt ($18) and scorched roman beans doused in chilli and fried eschallots ($9). Beef tartare ($15) is given crackle and crunch by way of pickled eggplant and potato paper (read: really, really thin chips) while glossy, white barramundi ($18) is bolstered by romesco sauce and fried mussels.

Pineapple Adonis cocktail.
Pineapple Adonis cocktail.Christopher Pearce

You know what's really great, though? Even better than the food and drinks? It's the service, delivered by staff who treat their patrons as flesh-and-blood adults. Too many "hot new bars" are tended by design students with the arrogance of a German fashion blogger or over-enthusiastic waiters in tattered Hot Tuna singlets ("try the fish, dude. It's dope"). This is a welcome change.

Advertisement

Sloan says Bulletin Place will always be the "jewel in the crown"; a sense-of-occasion bar with a focus on seasonally driven cocktails. Dead Ringer has been designed as a bar to drop into on a Tuesday or Sunday evening – maybe run into people you know; maybe stick around for a bite to eat.

The chaps have overshot themselves, though and created a bar you want to drink at every night. And eating here isn't "a maybe", it's a  genuine, absolute must.

Yuzu Breezer cocktail.
Yuzu Breezer cocktail.Christopher Pearce

Go for… a boozy, take-a-load of lunch with mates.

Stay for… pear bonbons and Australian fortified wine.

Advertisement

Drink… the Pineapple Adonis.

And… a hot and cold buttered toddy featuring custom-made burnt-butter and sage gelato by Messina is coming soon.

Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.

Sign up
Callan BoysCallan Boys is editor of SMH Good Food Guide, restaurant critic for Good Weekend and Good Food writer.

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement