It’s been 200 years since civil engineer John Busby worked out how to channel fresh water from the Lachlan Swamp (Centennial Park) to Hyde Park via an underground canal.
The Busby Bore,as it was known,ran deep under Oxford Street,linking a series of natural springs and basins. Now,with the opening of Busby’s,Oxford Street has a new watering hole.
Jon Adgemis and Public Hospitality,the ambitious team behind the Oxford House boutique hotel,Mexican restaurant and pool bar,are channelling the Busby’s namesake with pre-batch negronis,natural wine and craft brews on tap.
Fried potato pavé,herb cream cheese and trout roe.James BrickwoodThere’s talent on tap as well,now that the Maybe Sammy cocktail crew are on board,alongside ACME co-founder Ed Loveday,group executive chef Nick Mahlook and culinary creative director Clayton Wells. The mixologist is Paolo Maffietti and the manager Beatrice Innocenti;natural wine guru Mike Bennie of P&V Liquor has curated the wines.
The long narrow space stretches along Oxford Street,its windows lined with discreet wooden shutters. Inside,deep booths are built for groups,while couples are directed to stools at high tables or a small banquette lined with tiny bar tables.
Sit here to admire the sound system,with its hand-built 1977 vintage Klipsch Heresy speakers,Technics SL-1200 turntable and Ecler rotary mixer. Some nights,it’s whole-of-album retro,from Bryan Ferry to Sade;but on Thursdays,DJ Jonti rules the waves with smooth sounds from Azymuth,Casiopea and Madlib.
A negroni ($22) is deep and dark,but an Abbey Road cocktail ($21) is just plain annoying. Not for its too-sweet mix of Bombay Citron Pressé,Davidson plum,Martini bianco vermouth,bush apple and cider;but for the pink plum powder dusted over something sticky painted on the outside of the glass. Cease and desist,please.
Snacks and small dishes are the best way to go,such as Clayton Wells’ signature tiger prawn roll ($14),a soft bun of shredded lettuce,bouncy prawn cake and Old Bay mayo.
I’ve never been comfortable eating main courses in a wine bar – and besides,the tables for two are too small for anything but a few olives.
So snack on,with a crisp,golden layered brick of potato pavé,topped with a squish of herb cream cheese and bright orange trout roe ($10). Sixteen layers of potato died to make this thing,and it was worth it.
Add some really good,finely sliced serrano jamon,layered (strangely) over a bed of Pedro Ximenez prune paste and topped with hand-rolled needles of grissini ($24).
There’s synergy between Busby’s and another of Public Hospitality’s watering holes,The Strand, in William Street. Both menus offer terrific chicken liver parfaits,tuna crudos and heirloom tomato salads (here with shiso leaves,raspberries,blackberries and tart,lemony Yandilla mustard dressing,$18).
Jamon Iberico,PX prune paste,thyme and grissini.James BrickwoodWines by the glass are limited (for a wine bar),but when a fellow diner doesn’t enjoy her wine – “too zingy” – another is brought. Service is keen but still shambolic;it’s going to take a while to work out the dynamic between bar and dining.
A lovely dish of creste di gallo cockscomb-shaped pasta is good to share,with its slurpy vodka-spiked cream of tomato,garlic and piquillo peppers ($26). Roast spatchcock with rocket and dill pickle ($36) is nicely cooked on the bone but tests my theory (that you shouldn’t eat main courses in wine bars) by taking an age to arrive.
It’s a wine bar,as I keep telling you,so I skip the custard tart and passionfruit pav,and go directly to cheese;a buttery,bloomy buche d’affinois ($16) served with kiwifruit conserve and crisp,thin rye toast. It plays nicely with a glass of light and fruity P&V Session Rosé ($14).
The food is simple and good,the glassware is elegant,and the music underwrites the whole experience,delivering warmth and energy to a part of Oxford Street that needs it. Who knows if Mr Busby would approve? But anyone who doesn’t is just an old bore.