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Knox Street Bar

Rachel Olding

Good fun: Knox Street Bar is an off-kilter, community-led drinking hole.
Good fun: Knox Street Bar is an off-kilter, community-led drinking hole.Cole Bennetts

Scandinavian

An empty garage, 25 years worth of collectables and a cocktail wheel-of-fortune. These are the obvious staples when building a good neighbourhood bar, right? 

Knox Street Bar is the kind of knockabout place you want to have on your street corner. It's a community-led drinking hole in all its weird, off-kilter glory.

There may be wires hanging from the roof and old car seats doubling as uncomfortable couches. But there is also an excellent cider fermenting in the hallway and bees on the roof making honey for the cocktails.

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Alcohol-infused gelato and sorbet.
Alcohol-infused gelato and sorbet.Cole Bennetts

The cafe next door brews the beans for the espresso martinis and a local gelato artisan, Arctic Bar, keeps dropping by with crazy new alcohol-infused gelato flavours to be used in gelato flights or gelato-based cocktails served in continental martini glasses.

"It's a bit like a garage project with all sorts of things changing and happening," says owner Bjorn Godwin. "I really want it to be a local community bar because I think that's the most sustainable model."

Godwin, a photographer and sculptor, has owned this Chippendale building for 25 years and made his first foray into the bar world in August by filling the basement with quirky possessions and bringing on board some local talent, including Tyrone McCulloch from Sticky Bar.

A cocktail takes shape.
A cocktail takes shape.Cole Bennetts
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The result is an eclectic, unusual spot. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. The atmosphere will be great when it's crowded (hello, rowdy Chippendale nights) but it's still a bit quiet at the moment and you feel like you're sitting in, well, a garage.

The Knox Street cider (the one fermenting in vats on the entrance ramp) is perfect if you like your apples halfway between sweet and dry and the tap beers are all from St Peters brewer Iron Bridge Brewery.

There's a rye, a pale ale and a stout - the latter a big, roasty, malty Dominoe Dark ($8).

The gelato is also a winner but Godwin is still experimenting with it. The mini cones used in the gelato flight don't match the light, bright flavours. Better to try the cocktails such as the Knox Street cider-infused sorbet with fresh apple and sherbet or the Bourbon Bad Boy (gelato infused with Makers Mark bourbon, Liqueur 43, panna cotta, orange zest, chocolate).

Much of the food and drink is as lo-fi as the garage surrounds. Food is provided by monthly food truck residencies and the cocktails are hit and miss depending on who your bartender is.

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But, spin the colourful cocktail wheel of fortune and pay $13 for whatever drink it lands on. Hard to argue with that.

Godwin promises that there is more to come as this nascent bar finds its stride. They're working on a list of experimental cocktails based on Australian craft spirits (in collaboration with Kathleen Davies from Nip of Courage) and are still developing the wine list, which is all Australian and NZ at the moment with some good variety.

When the kinks are ironed out and the crew has a better sense of what they're trying to do, this place will be a rip-roaring little find. It's not easy to nail that perfect blend of between weird, wonderful and worth coming back for. But they're on the way.

THE LOW-DOWN
YOU'LL LOVE IT IF...
you like quirky, off-kilter neighbourhood bars
YOU'LL HATE IT IF... you're looking for absolute top-notch food and drink
GO FOR... Knox Street cider, bourbon-infused gelato, cocktail wheel of fortune

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