This big, bold offering from one of the city’s top operators is revitalising The Rocks. To see why, slip into its epic wine bar for mini classic cocktails, brilliant vino and top-notch snacks.
If there’s one thing the Swillhouse hospitality group is known for, it’s total immersion. Ever since it opened Shady Pines Saloon in a backstreet basement in 2010, leading the way for Sydney’s small-bar scene with honky-tonk tunes, taxidermy moose heads and more free peanuts than you’d need on hand for an escaped circus elephant, each subsequent venture has landed fully formed and fully realised. There’s speakeasy-style The Baxter Inn with its suspenders-wearing bartenders. There was the rock ’n’ roll character of pizza-slinging CBD basement bar Frankie’s. And Hubert and Alberto’s Lounge are full-blown restaurants that transport you to, respectively, Paris’s golden age and the Italy shown on screen in La Dolce Vita, with talent on the floor and in the kitchen.
Le Foote, then, was one of the city’s most anticipated openings simply from being associated with the same operators. Add the fact it’s right at the centre of The Rocks, with heritage character and a whole lot of potential, and it’s small wonder it’s been rammed since the get-go. The venue is a two-for-one, with a restaurant proper out back, but up front it’s all bar action, with upstairs, downstairs, balcony and courtyard seating, trending cocktails on tap, fine beers, finer wines and snacks to write home about. If you haven’t been, put it on your hitlist stat.
The two-sip mini cocktails are as cute as can be, and a refreshing way to kick things off (or close things out) without the potency of a full glass. Order one without thinking, sit down, take a beat, let your eyes wander over the menu, and plan your next move. It could be to opt for an achingly on-trend Sbagliato, here served on tap of all things, and coming out in a colourful bowl-sized glass rammed with ice. Rather than just being a Negroni “with prosecco in it”, the dapper Le Foote bartenders make theirs with a hint of grapefruit and sparkling rhubarb wine, meaning extra fruitiness to balance out the bitterness.
You might pick a beer from a list that plays it straight until it doesn’t, adding 10% blonde Belgian tripel, fruit-forward lambic and milk stout to more commonly seen local lagers and pale ales. Wine? They have that, too, by the glass, carafe or bottle, and an extended wine list available on request. Keep it tight, and you’re talking mostly French, Italian, German and Australian drops, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t the odd Lebanese natural sparkling, say. Classicism and classic, and low-intervention methods are the go, with interest and flavour front of mind.
