Pinbone’s new pop-up
Sydney’s Pinbone loves a good plot twist. Its next adventure? A glorious mash-up of bar, restaurant and dance party.
With the dust barely settled on their Chinese Sydney pop-up Good Luck Pinbone, chefs Mike Eggert and Jemma Whiteman are at work on their next shape-shifting venture, this time in partnership with juggernaut Sydney restaurant group Merivale.
This month they open Mr Liquor Dirty Italian Disco in the drive-through of the group’s Tennyson Hotel in Mascot. Italianate food and a pick-and-drink system that takes advantage of the ample fridge space at the pub’s bottle shop are the calling cards. “We were thinking of restaurants that are always fun – when it’s more than just a meal and you have a really good time,” Eggert says. “To us, Italian food is always happy.”
Eggert and Whiteman have a woodfired oven to work with, which they plan to use for everything from fish, molten cheeses and whole suckling pigs to focaccia “with all sorts of toppings”, says Eggert. “Basically, whatever we find that looks like it would go well in a big wood-fired oven.”
Pasta, such as pappardelle with a green vegetable ragù, and trofie with red pepper, chilli and liverwurst sauce, is likely to appear on the opening menu, along with smoked eel lasagne, and shallots roasted in drippings with
Comté and parsley. Fans of Eggert and Whiteman’s hazelnut tiramisù will be able to get their fix and, with some luck, there may be an Italian version of the icy poles served at Good Luck Pinbone.
Good times are the goal, with the gang’s influences ranging from the Italo-American restaurants of Williamsburg to a casual backyard barbecue with the extended family, the tables laden with plates of buttered sardines with tomato, chilli and fennel, say, and raw beef with horseradish and bitter greens. The Tennyson’s drivethrough, detached from the pub proper and more akin to a large shed, will be decked out like a warehouse party, and DJs will spin Donna Summer, punk and more.
Unsurprisingly for a bottle shop, there will be a big drinks list, a rare feature for a pop-up and a change of pace from the BYO scenario at Good Luck Pinbone. “When you’ve got a massive cool-room fridge, you can do what you want, even if that’s stocking two bottles of something,” Eggert says. Punters will be able to browse the fridges for natural wines or a six-pack of beer, for example, before settling at a table on the horseshoeshaped driveway.
Sydney will have six months to enjoy Mr Liquor Dirty Italian Disco, from early October, Wednesday to Sunday.
How does it feel to go from running your own pop-ups to working with a big player such as Merivale? “These guys are seasoned professionals,” Eggert says. “They see things that no one else sees.” Mr Liquor Dirty Italian Disco, 952 Botany Rd, Mascot, NSW, merivale.com.au