GDR

Oh, to visit Europe in the 1970s. Metre-wide lapels, Bjorn Borg Pez dispensers, velour jackets, ribbed turtlenecks, Roger Moore, Ford Cortinas at every roundabout and architecture that makes Blues Point Tower look like the Opera House.

Until a phone booth, hot tub, or DeLorean can transport me back to a time when everything was made of fondue, GDR (Gunther's Dining Room) will have to suffice.

Maybe I'm looking through amber-tinted aviators here, but I like this bar a lot. Semi-hidden out the back of Redfern Continental (the new Euro restaurant from Arcadia Liquors), GDR had me at green velvet booths. No need to hang kitsch paintings like around the corner at Arcadia. Wood paneling will be just fine, thanks. There's also no windows or connection the outside world and most light comes from a disco-ball and the type of crystal pendants found in Polish community club foyers. If you've ever been to the CTA Business Club bar in Martin Place (and if you haven't, it's fantastic), it's like a cross between that and Golden Age Cinema, but with more cocktails.  

Colonel Aureliano Faces The Firing Squad is a boozy, smoking jacket of a drink that mixes Laird's AppleJack, Dolin Rouge vermouth, Vida mezcal, bitters and sugar. It's based on a creation from Oregon's Hunt and Alpine Club, and as a fan of sazeracs and agave-based spirits, it might be my favourite cocktail this year. Why it's named after a character in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' 100 Years of Solitude is anyone's guess. Maybe because of the hand-grenade-sized ball of ice that could kill a man.

In the interest of trying an original GDR cocktail, I ask for The Hoff ($18), a blend of Ocho tequila, Amaro Montenegro, beetroot, basil, and cucumber, however the reasonably awesome bar staff suggest it's too vegetal to follow The Colonel. An excellent Manhattan with a house vermouth-mix of Punt e Mes and Dolin, it is then. A mint julep ($18), meanwhile, is icier than an Estonian driveway.

If you're haven't gorged yourself on schnitzel and cabbage in Redfern Continental, there's a few a bar snacks available to satisfy all levels of peckishness - $4 crostinis of with crushed pea, mint and pecorino, say, or a tapas-bowl of pleasing-enough meatballs ($12) served in a pulpy sugo. Calamari fritti is underseasoned and little soggy, which is shame because few foods go better with Liebenweiss wheat beer than fried squid.

The only other qualm I have is with the music. MIA and Kasabian do not an authentic 1970s Euro-escapism make. Next time I'm bringing a portable record player and a copy of Abba's Voulez-Vous. However, GDR is still a top addition to a suburb that might be the best place to barhop in Sydney. Prost!

THE LOW-DOWN
Go for… green velvet booths and a disco ball.
Stay for… a Manhattan and meatballs.
Drink… Colonel Aureliano Faces The Firing Squad
And… finish with a shot of slivovitz.