Naked For Satan
After a big night celebrating a friend’s milestone birthday we started our boozy journey along Smith Street Collingwood, one block and one suburb away at Naked For Satan’s rooftop.
Ascend to the rooftop past last century’s naked fantasies cut from magazines and stuck to the walls. With a view down Brunswick Street to St Patrick’s Cathedral I settled the dog that bit me with a coffee-infused negroni and lined my stomach with ragu pasta and a glass of red.
For those seeking a more virtuous start to the libatious tour of Smith St, try a salad lunch at Alimentari, next door to our starting point, Beermash. You can increase variety by choosing several salads on your plate. Or even better, Glou, second on our itinerary allow customers to BYO food – Glou’s wine will pair beautifully with Alimentari’s salads.
I’m not sure if it was because it was a quiet afternoon, or it’s general practice, though every place we visited on Smith St allowed me a little taster from the taps before I committed. Excellent for me as I am very fussy about beer and very ignorant about wine.
BeerMash
Beermash served a beer so potent they would only pour 200ml. At 12% alcohol, the StigBergets Trouble Sleep Imperial Porter had the punch of a strong cocktail without the boozy overtones.
My drinking buddy, not a beer fan, was content with the BeerMash Hot Spiced Mulled wine on that cold afternoon. And to increase the authenticity of this upmarket pub experience – we got some chips. No ordinary chip though – South Australian, natural, Chappy Chips with in-house crafted seasonings. We sat indoors at the windows observing Smiths Street’s passing parade.
Photograph: Mark Ferguson
Glou
In the quid quo pro nature of the drinking buddy relationship, we proceeded next door to Glou wine bar. I usually don’t touch the stuff as the unpredictable sulfite content has me awake all night to an extreme that even Trouble Sleep Porter could not cure.
However, our hostess was well versed on the sulfite content in all the wines pouring from her taps up from the barrels beneath. She recommended a red with low tannins and low sulfite. Her recommendation was an excellent chaser – for a non-oenophile – as we sat at the outdoor tables in Smith Street. And if you love something you’ve tried you can take it home in a refillable bottle home.
The Craft & Co
Our final stop was The Craft & Co after a few only slightly sobering block’s walk. Craft & Co began making gin: a technically easy process requiring macerating juniper berries and selected botanicals in brewers’ alcohol. In addition, now, The Craft & Co have moved on to the more complex task of making beer.
After a taste, I chose Dark Rice Lager as I had never seen it dark before. My drinking buddy chose a cocktail, which she recalled as delicious, but the name was lost in our slightly sloshed state. I do remember the bartender used Wonderfoam, from across the road at The Bitters Lab, instead of egg whites to qualify the cocktail as vegan. We sat at the outdoor tables near the heaters and imbibed our last libation before I began the dash for my flight back to Sydney.
