Mojo Record Bar to open new bar Easy Eight

Adam Hadad Easy EightEasy Eight manager Adam Hadad

If you’ve done any drinking in the Sydney CBD of late, you’ll know there’s a cluster of top class bars around York and Clarence Streets — from Stitch, Mojo Record Bar, The Rook and The Barber Shop on the York Street side, to The Baxter Inn and The Lobo Plantation on Clarence with Papa Gede’s Bar just a jump over from there on Kent Street.

Come January, the team behind Mojo Record Bar will throw open the doors on Easy Eight. Located in the basement at 89 York Street, you’ll have to enter from the laneway behind it (which you may be familiar with from previous visits to The Baxter Inn and The Barber Shop).

Originally the space was destined to become a rockabilly diner, but with changes in personnel during its development the concept has evolved, said general manager Adam Hadad (ex-The Wild Rover, currently at Mojo Record Bar).

“Originally we were going to do an authentic 1950s rockabilly, food offering wing of Mojo’s but as the project manager moved on, it evolved into a space in which we could have a lot more freedom,” said Hadad. “Not just the music, but the cocktails, the drinks — the authentic 1950s rockabilly diner was a constricting thing. It’s one that I believed has been done, so I was thankful when the new guys came through they said they want to give it their own kind of feel. It’s still a diner, but we’re a diner that does cocktails.”

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The drinks and the food will go hand in hand at Easy Eight, said Hadad.

“The bar is going to be set up to do lots of classics, the food is going to be all sharing, really accessible, a special sandwich every week — the first one will be a big, open face Cuban style. It will always be different.

“The chef was really inspired by Cajun style, he loves smoked, he loves reductions, using stocks in everything. And from my point of view, I try to live as healthy and as clean as I can and Sydney is that kind of city, [so] my input into that is that the offerings are going to have a health-conscious offering to it as well. Whilst the menu is small it does offer a lot and will be quite ephemeral as well,” he said.

With a capacity of just 60 people, they’ll be doing table service to the booths and the diner counter style seating at the bar.

“I’ve noticed that people can’t stand waiting for drinks,” Hadad said. “And I myself don’t like ordering over people’s shoulders and that has become the norm. All my floor staff are bartenders in training, when they’re out there explaining cocktails to people, they’ve made them before and they know what it is.”

As for the drinks themselves, it’s a focus on unique drinks you can’t get elsewhere — along with the classics, of course.

“Cocktails are a big focus,” said Hadad. “Every drink will have an edible garnish — we’re going to utilise the kitchen to that extent. So for example, what I hope to be our signature drink will be the Apple Pie. Kind of like an Appletini, served on the rocks, the garnish is a pie crust that sits on top of the drink, and you smash through the crust with a straw and drink the drink and you can eat the pie crust.”

The emphasis here? It’s on the fun.

“First and foremost [the drinks are] fun, the way cocktails should be,” he said. “Things that are accessible, fun, and flavourful. Every drink has a single unique ingredient that we make in house, sometimes two. That’s not the garnish — either the reduction, the syrup the bitter, whatever we use every drink will have its own. There won’t be a drink on the menu that you can replicate at home without our recipe for it.”

Opening on January 15th next year, they’ve brought on board The Wild Rover’s former general manager, Mitch Oldfield, with others to be announced soon.

Mojo Record Bar to open new bar,
Easy Eight

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