Amarillo

People approach the bar to order toasties to take away. Others sit at a corner table enjoying glasses of red wine with cold cuts and pickles. Light from the north-facing windows fills the room of this mid-century-European-inspired bar.

Amarillo is by Adam Sime (LongPlay). His goal for it is to create something timeless and classic. Walking in, you’re hit with a sense of the kind of simple but effortlessly stylish bars you find in Italy.

The menu includes dishes such as oysters, anchovies on little toasts, a plate of mussels and larger rotating specials. The menu changes, but larger meals in the past have included rabbit and lentil pie, and a cuttlefish and white bean salad.

The cocktail list includes favourites such as Martinis and Negronis and forgotten gems such as a Cat’s Pyjamas (gin, Cocchi Americano and grapefruit) and Penicillin (warm whisky with house-made ginger syrup, honey and lemon).

The wine and beer choices highlight local breweries such as Stomping Ground and Blackman’s, and the wine list has European heavyweights from Champagne and Tuscany side by side with small Australian producers.