Whisky Jerx Wayne's World pop-up

Schwing! Ex-squeeze me? Party time! Excellent! As if! No, way! Way! Zang! Delaware. Aspinchtersayswhat. She will be mine. Oh yes – she will be mine.

All right. With all of that out of the way, the rest of this review might exist without a Wayne's World quote every second sentence. Not!

The Whisky Jerx are bartenders Lee Potter Cavanagh, Ben Blair and Reece Griffith (all ex-Victoria Room). With help from the prize money they won at Monkey Shoulder whiskey's nationwide Ultimate Bartender Competition, the trio have transformed The Unicorn's basement into a babe-licious tribute to everyone's favourite 1992 flick starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne and Garth – twentysomething Aerosmith enthusiasts with a community television show in Aurora, Illinois.

As expected from an eight-week long pop-up, it's like a mate's thrown a Wayne's World party at an inner-west share house, rather than a Universal Studios-level recreation of the film set.

The focal point is a spot designed to look like Wayne's basement with wood-panel wallpaper, an electric guitar and amp, and a couple of couches with crochet throw rugs. Trainspotters will get a kick out of the gun rack, a vintage Chicago Blackhawks hockey pennant, and a framed T-shirt from Stan Mikita's Donuts – the film's fictional diner where Garth uses a straw to drink jam from a donut (jam donuts from The Nighthawk Diner and Garth's nerd glasses are available for purchase should you want to recreate that moment).

There's a rotating list of five spirits, five wines, five cocktails, five beers, and five house-made sodas. A wattle-infused cola sets me back $6 and I'll be damned if I can taste any wattle. A tarty, cherry-vanilla soda with a $5 shot of Monkey Shoulder is a lot more fun.

A balanced mix of whisky, sweet vermouth, tawny port, and Fernet-Branca ($15), is a chest-hair grower, although fewer quick-melting ice cubes would have made the party time excellent instead of all right. For a fruitier tipple, try the "Monkeys Might Fly Out Of My Butt" ($15) creation with whisky, rockmelon juice, lemon, and falernum (that's a lime, clove, and ginger syrup).

There's a stage area (read: corner of the room) where local bands like The Zoo City Lads and Cranky Alice turn things up to 11 with a mix of originals and covers including Aerosmith's immortal "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)." How all this head-banging and guitar-thrashing will go down in a stretch of Paddington more associated with David Lawrence than David Lee Roth, I'm not sure. However, everyone looks to be revelling in the goofy fun of it all so tie your best flanno around your waist and party on while it lasts.

THE LOW-DOWN
Go for… Wayne's World reference Easter-egg hunting.
Stay for… the shredding pub rock classics.
Drink… one of the house-made sodas set to "party" mode.
And… is that Dave Grohl over there?