Where the wild things are at Odd Culture Newtown

Q: Are your venues dog-friendly?

A: "You doggone bet we are!" According to the chatty FAQ on the Odd Culture Group website, fur-children are welcome downstairs at the Old Fitzroy Hotel in Woolloomooloo, the Duke of Enmore in Enmore, The Oxford Tavern in Petersham, and at their new Odd Culture bar and restaurant in Newtown.

Not that I have seen any lockdown-puppies in the broad, concrete-poured, industrial/minimalist bar with its 12 spigots of craft beer and long share tables recycled from French oak barrels.

Instead, there has been a continual flow of easy-going Newtowners who come for the beer, natural wines, or ferment-happy cooking of head chef Jesse Warkentin (Continental Deli) and executive chef James MacDonald (Restaurant Hubert).

Odd Culture is only odd in that the chefs are cooking as if they're in a restaurant instead of a bar, and only cultured in that anything that stands still for a minute will be brined, salted, pickled or fermented.

It gives the dishes real energy and lots of oomph, as does the thinking behind the cooking. Seeing chicken liver pâté ($16) on a menu is no big surprise right now. Seeing it with house-made potato crisps stuck all over it like a hedgehog is cute, but no biggie.

However, send it out in a pool of fish sauce caramel, fragrant with chilli and garlic, and you have my full attention. Combining the smooth, rich pâté with a salty crunch and the deep, toasty sweetness of the caramel tosses classic French charcuterie into Asian street food, and neither will ever be the same again.

Breakfast (from 7am daily) is equally elevated, with Mecca coffee and the chance to start your day as you mean to go on, with an earthy, funky pig's blood and smoked pork jowl pancake ($26) topped with a frilly fried egg, lacto-fermented onions and chilli-infused maple syrup. Cor blimey, cancel lunch.

Service is free-wheeling, with downstairs being order-at-the-bar and waiter service upstairs, where bookings are recommended. Small bare-boned tables line up in panelled sections beneath a faded Resch's mural in a space that feels not so much done-up as left undone.

The love of ferments extends to an on-trend, fizzy tepache spritz ($20) with its soda of fermented pineapple rind mixed with agave, tequila and the tang of fresh lime.

There's also a nice synergy in the hoppy, fruity Big C Hazy IPA from Alexandria's Bracket Brewing being used in the sourdough ($5) served with sea-salty butter.

There's no fear of salt here, from skinny pastry-wrapped anchovy cigars ($7 each) to a briny, milky dressing overripe summer tomatoes and shredded shiso leaf ($22).

The umami connection is also strong, with a thick fillet of steamed snapper ($46) "scaled" with rings of purple daikon (so new to me, I thought it was radish) in a glossy, green pond of nori butter.

Confit duck, busily tossed with hazelnuts, bacon, sweetcorn, radicchio and rocket, with chicken jus and a shower of barrel-aged feta ($32), could do with an edit.

To end, a clean-tasting Jersey milk gelato ($12) gets worked over with peanut butter crumb and super-salty miso caramel goo, as if it's not sure whether it's for adults or for kids.

Diners not familiar with minimal-intervention labels will need some help. A bright, carbonic-macerated 2019 Pleine Tete Beaujolais Villages ($84) from one of the region's rising stars, Baptiste Bertrand, is the very definition of glou-glou (gluggable).

And the beer list is actually quite awesome, with 150 sours, lambics and farmhouse ales treated as equals to the wines.

It may be a little odd, but I like the culture and how this hybrid restaurant-bar makes its own casual way through the tangled labyrinth that is hospitality at the moment.

If nothing else, the crazy mix of wild yeasts, articulate cooking and dining-while-pubbing means there's something here for everyone. And their dog.

The low-down

Drinks Wild yeasts and minimal intervention drive the wine list and farmhouse beers, and cocktails are playful.

Vegetarian A handful, including celeriac maltagliati with tomato garum and basil.

Pro tip Like what you drink? Buy it at the Odd Culture Bottle Shop a few doors away.

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.