Odd Culture

It was Melbourne’s drink-in bottle shops that inspired the original Odd Culture bar and bottle shop in Newtown, Sydney. In 2023, things came full circle when the hybrid bottle shop and bar finally landed in Fitzroy.

As the name suggests, the Odd Culture team is into beers, wines and other drinks flavoured by funky yeasts and bacterial cultures. On shelves and in fridges you’ll find classic lambics and farmhouse ales from Belgian legends like Cantillon and Fantome, plus new-world sours from Texas’s Jester King and Sydney’s own Wildflower. Around 12 taps are pouring beers like Mountain Culture IPA and a sherry barrel-aged imperial stout from Estonian brewery Pohjala.

You’ll find some of Odd Culture’s signature cocktails, like the sour Negroni with vermouth made from kriek (a tart, cherry-flavoured beer), alongside some Melbourne-only ones, including In Cold Blood, made with Gospel rye whiskey, artichoke amaro and Saison vermouth. There’s no bottle list for wine. Instead, drinkers are invited to browse the shelves and fridges. The selection is mostly natural and minimal intervention, and there are a few choice picks from the esoteric French appellation of Jura, plenty of small Victorian producers, Japanese natural wineries and more.

Food-wise, it’s mostly beer and wine-friendly snacks that lean on neighbourhood producers. There’s sourdough from Baker Bleu with St David Dairy cultured butter. Odd Culture’s signature dish of chicken liver pate with house-made crisps and fish sauce-infused caramel here uses Chappy’s chips and Meatsmith pate. The butcher also supplies the duck and pistachio terrine.