The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

The Powder Keg

Rachel Olding
Rachel Olding

Speakeasy style: The Powder Keg brings a touch of the stiff upper lip to Kellet Street.
Speakeasy style: The Powder Keg brings a touch of the stiff upper lip to Kellet Street.Dominic Lorrimer

Modern Australian$$

Lockout laws and diminished crowds haven't stopped a handful of gutsy operators from setting up shop in Kings Cross over the last year. Some, like New Hampton and Love on Top, haven't shone as brightly as they may have hoped. Others, like The Butler and Chester White Diner, have been a hit. And Grant Collins' latest venture, the Powder Keg, should fall into the latter category.

The English-born cocktail master has brought a touch of the stiff upper lip to Kellet Street, one of Kings Cross's few leafy, quiet(ish) nooks. His elegant, old-style gin palace is big on gin and tonic and food inspired by the mother country like scotch eggs, fish 'n' chips and cured salmon fingers.

You'd be hard pressed finding a better gin bar in Sydney. There are around 95 gins, five types of tonic (one of which is house-made using old school quinine), three types of ice (hand chipped, block ice or regular cubed) and your garnish of choice (cucumber, please).

Advertisement
The Gunpowder Plot cocktail.
The Gunpowder Plot cocktail.Dominic Lorrimer

They've got London Dry on tap (which is like a botanical party in your mouth when served with some lavender bitters and fever tree tonic) and a dizzying list of UK classics, London dries, genevers, New Americans, sloe gins, Plymouth gins and even the odd gin from Sweden, Spain and Germany. Many of them come with a recommended mixer, such as tonic, caramelised passion fruit wheel, fresh lime and bee pollin pollen to have with your Whitley Neil ($19) or tonic, lychee and poppyseed with your Bulldog Gin from the USA ($12). It's a good idea to offer so much choice in tonic and ice, given that 80 per cent of your drink is not alcohol. And they're among a small handful of bars to take their mixers as seriously as their booze.

Cocktails range from delicate fruity, fizzy things to the absurdly theatrical – no surprise from the man who served a deconstructed mojito in a tube of toothpaste with toothbrush and mouthwash at his previous bar, the White Hart in Neutral Bay.

They're also very reasonably priced considering Collins' penchant for all things deconstructed, molecular and generally outlandish.

It feels like the whole restaurant is staring at you when the Gunpowder Plot (gunpowder tea spiked gin, fernet branca, gunpowder syrup, dandelion and burdoch bitters, $18) comes to your table in a giant smoking cloche. Some will scoff at the ridiculousness but it's all good fun.

Advertisement

The most bizarre would have to be the TPK BBQ Mary - horseradish root vodka, house-made steak smoked mary mix, house made beef jerky and BBQ bitters served in a can with awkwardly large chunks of dehydrated maple-infused bacon and cherry tomatoes on top and, wait for it, a beef jerky straw. 

For the less adventurous, there are a dozen modern wines by the glass and some unexpected beer and cider options like a Badlands IPA from Orange ($9) and three Custard English ciders from the Margaret River. 

Food is by no means a sideshow and this place is as much a restaurant as a bar. Out the front, dinner tables take prime position under a fairy-lit tree. Inside, there is a regal dining room and a narrow corridor lined with booths that leads to the dimly-lit bar almost hidden down the back. It has a speakeasy vibe, minus the beards and tattoos. Each dish is fussy. They're decorated with tiny flowers and sauce smears and are not for those who are after quick, easy bar food. But chef Danny Russo is serving up some winners like wonderfully tender lamb neck ($29), cute duck schnitzel "lollipops" ($9) and a beef tartar that is perfectly balanced with smoked mussels, mustard and oysters ($17).

Entering Kings Cross may be risky but Collins has never been one to play it safe on any front.

THE LOW-DOWN
YOU'LL LOVE IT IF...
 you're serious about your gin and tonic.
YOU'LL HATE IT IF... you don't feel like being adventurous.
GO FOR... the best gin and tonic you've ever had.

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

Sign up
Rachel OldingRachel Olding is a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in the United States.

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement