Milk & Honey alumni to open a new bar in Sydney

peg_leg_heroFrom left: Manuel Alavarez, Paul Burton, Collin Perillo

There’s a new bar set to inject Sydney’s Pyrmont neighbourhood with more top-flight cocktail options come August.

Owned by two former Milk & Honey London bartenders, Collin Perillo and Manuel Alavarez, along with Paul Burton (who comes from a civil engineering background) Peg Leg will mine the area’s rich history as a port for its inspiration.

“When we first discovered the site, we didn’t know exactly what we were going to do,” said Perillo. “But as soon as we started walking across one of the oldest bridges in Australia [the Pyrmont Bridge], passing by the Maritime Museum, the replica of the Endeavour, we started thinking about how important this neighbourhood has been historically to this country.

“It’s one of the oldest ports in the country, and one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the country,” he said.

ADVERTISEMENT
 

And for bartenders, there’s nothing that speaks of the sea and the era of nautical exploration than drinks like gin and rum.

“When you start thinking about, if we were going to have a great night out, that night would probably involve gin, rum, champagne maybe, oysters, if we’re lucky some port, some sherry,” said Perillo. “All of those things comes from European explorers of the spice trade era, [it all] travelled on these tall mast ships and were brought into our culture.”

Those ideas will feed into the cocktail list, said Alvarez.

“There definitely will be cocktails,” he said. “We’ll be using a lot gin, rum, and a lot of spices so getting all that nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, cardamom. A lot of sherry too, and fortifieds.”

The site itself has some interesting history, having been built as a pub by the City of Sydney in 1914.

“Originally it was an old pub,” said Burton, “then a Chinese restaurant for about 10 years. It hasn’t been a pub for over a decade, so we’re bringing it back to life.”

“We found the original architect drawings of how it was constructed,” said Perillo. “So we’re reconstructing it exactly as it was, just with an updated, building-code-of Australia standard — and a cocktail bar designed by two former Milk & Honey bartenders with that mindset for ergonomics and efficiency and speed.”

The table seating area is inspired by the service style of Milk & Honey in London, with table service and booth seating (each equipped with USB ports and WiFi) in one area of the bar. The main entrance area will see a long bar run against the wall, with seating at the bar. “[It will] accommodate both our early morning service doing coffee and breakfast and cold pressed juices, or cocktail service in the evening,” said Perillo.

The trio said they expect to open in late August, just in time for the Spring. They’ll be open from 7am to midnight, with room for 60 people — follow their progress on their Facebook page here.

No Comments Yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.