Darlinghurst’s new bar

There are parts of the world where you can small dishes from behind a glass counter. For those visiting France, it’s called café a manger and if you’re in Spain, it’s a tapas bar.

It’s never really taken off in Sydney. All of that has changed with Black Bottle in Darlinghurst.

It doesn’t have a menu. All you have to do is take a seat and then walk over to the display fridge and select whatever items are on the day’s offerings.

And there’s lots to choose from: cured meats hanging from the ceiling and plenty of cheeses. There is also an assortment of delicately pickled things in jars. And then there’s market-fresh seafood that can be prepared on the konro, the Japanese ceramic barbeque.

Coffee would be the cheapest you could get in Sydney. An espresso costs $2, and long blacks are $3.

It’s all affordable with a table for two costing $40, wines starting at $8, and cocktails, such as Negronis, at $12.

Samantha Payne, sommelier for Billy Kwong has made up the wine list. It’s all very affordable and focuses exclusively on local producers. And if you want a wine, you can pretty much get it any way you want: by the glass, the bottle or the carafe.

 “Everywhere in Europe you get carafes, but here you don’t. If you don’t want to have a big night, but you want to try a good wine, you can just have a half bottle,” Black Bottle owner Lucas Cristofle told Broadsheet.

The small plaque there tell you everything. “Wine Bar, Cave á Manger, European Small Plates”.

“You go to the display, you see some beautiful prawns or scallops and we pop them on the barbecue for you,” Cristofle said.

He says it’s a good business model.

“Every day the chef goes to the market,’’ he says. “You create a more interactive relationship with suppliers, and you can get good prices because you’re not locked into a contract.”

 by Leon Gettler, June 23^rd 2017