Bars: The Eastern | New pub, bar & restaurant
The Eastern - a structural example of the once-upon-a-time world of Sydney’s six-o’clock-swill-hose-out pubs - looks about to be swallowed whole by the looming Bondi Junction Westfield. Hanging on for dear life in a tide of fruit-themed technology stores and Euro-American clothing boutiques, The Eastern has recently re-opened its door after a series of renovations.Although the Central American-themed rooftop bar and restaurant ‘El Topo’ debuted earlier this year, three new and equally-appealing food and beverage destinations were launched on Tuesday night.
The low-lit main bar, now known as The Publican due its craft beer and cider menus reaching over 100 options. The room is decorated with 1930s Art Deco inspired furniture and wall hangings including plush curtained booths that circumnavigate much of the ovular-shaped white marble bar. The central location of the bar provides access from all angles - an aspect to The Eastern that makes you wish that all that time you spent in eight-person-deep cues in nightclubs to get a glass of water was tax deductable.
The pick of beverages served to you by the wait staff, all in black-tie and suspender-supported aprons, is between Sydney Brewery’s Sydney Cider and the Glamorama Summer Ale; both a wonderfully kitsch play on words which helps to state The Eastern’s pride in its location like much bars, pubs and restaurants east of Kings Cross.
The Publican’s most attractive feature - apart from the beer menu and décor - is by far its Jaffle Bar. By the end of the festivities on the ground floor, The Publican, in the most salivation-inspiring way possible, reeked of melted cheese. The combination of a good beer and a cheese toasty is so obvious and yet so ingenious that it will undoubtedly continue to prove as successful in the future as it was on Tuesday night.
Heading upward and onward to the second floor, Anatoli, a newly established Greek-fusion restaurant serves contemporary-spun Greek cuisine in a beautifully simplistic setting.While more brightly lit than The Publican, Anatoli is almost entirely in black and white making the flashes of colour from a launch attendee’s yellow dress or red pants almost seem out of place.
Perhaps (thankfully) the well-established expectation of sea blue and white to be the norm for Greek restaurant décor has not influenced Anatoli, however the quality of the food and wine eradicates any doubts of authenticity. Holding the glass of Creatian red wine - which by the way, aces an ambassadorial role for the region - only inhibits your ability to double-fisted grab at the fried whitebait ‘chips’ served with a bean hummus or perhaps the sumac and preserved lemon puree-covered lamb belly.
Moving to the third floor, the crowd seems seriously excited by the offer of rum and South American beer, both of which Chimmi’s delivers in spades. The drinks on arrival - a salt-rimmed rum-based pineapple margarita and Pacifico Clara Mexican Lager - are presented in vintage wooden milk crates. The combination of multi-coloured veranda light bulbs synonymous with Kebab store shop fronts along with the orange tan-bulb lighting goes a long way to creating the illusion of a late afternoon house party somewhere in South America with a fantastic host.
In short, The Eastern has successfully created three individual culinary hidey-holes each offering a unique contrast to the chain-store feel of Bondi Junction. Between The Publican, Anatoli, Chimmi’s and El Topo there isn’t a thirst the newly renovated Eastern can’t fill, nor a stomach it can’t fill.
By Jackson Davey
