Best year bar none
It was the year we finally broke away from the old pub as white tiled drinking hole model (did you know that at the height of the six o’clock swill era there were troughs at the bar so the blokes wouldn’t have to leave to relieve?) and opened the doors on the era of the small neighbourhood bar where you can sit quietly, enjoy a glass of wine and a small plate of food with a few friends or alone - maybe reading poetry and sipping chardy – without the looming booming presence of the footie or the cricket or whatever on the plasmas overhead. No pokies, no TAB, no Keno – very un-Australian.
Even my neighbourhood is getting a bar – local bottle-o Tim Smith of the Little Bottle Shop of Glebe has spent the last six months negotiating a proper small bar license (not just a restaurant with a license) and converting three garages behind the shop into a very cosy bar, with a little help from architect Tone Wheeler. Timbah (375 Glebe Point Road entrance in Forsyth Street no number yet) as it’s to be called (personally I preferred the wankier name being bandied about, Garage à Trois). There’ll be good wine, good food from chef Malcolm Bowery – all very simple and very – neighbourly. Oh, and when one of your neighbours is Reg Mombassa (AKA Chris O’Doherty) you can expect the odd barfing dog on the wall. Opening planed for January 13th depending on the bureaucrats.
