Anyone who’s been to Josh Hodges and Caleb Baker’s beloved Footscray bar, Mr West, knows the bartending pair are partial to a wild-fermented brew, from the saisons, lambics, organic lagers and rustic farmhouse ales on tap to their natty-leaning wine list.

At their new Brunswick hideaway, Bar Spontana, an evolution of their summer-long pop-up, they’re leaning even further into the world of spontaneous fermentation – the “truest” way of capturing terroir and seasonality, says Baker – with a largely wild-fermented drinks list.

You might find a lambic beer made with aglianico grapes by cult Italian winery Cantina Giardino, a saison macerated on plums, or a puckering sour by pioneers of local wild fermentation like Two Metre Tall, Wildflower and La Sirene. Plus, there’s a formidable list of low-intervention wines and wild-fermented sakes, mezcals and rums.

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Spontana means “spontaneous” in Esperanto, the universal language created in the 19th century to help diverse groups of people communicate more easily and peacefully – a concept that struck a chord with Baker and Hodges. “We thought that was quite beautiful,” says Baker. “And that’s kind of what we’re doing here – we’ll have wines and beers from Australia and Europe and Chile and all sorts of places. And our food is a Thai offering … we liked that idea of bringing everything together and breaking down barriers.”

That goes for the fit-out, too. The pair have knocked out the intimate timber-lined booths and arches of the former Theodore’s and Host Dining space, to open up the room and create a more communal setting. They’ve also reconfigured the bar area and added a charcoal grill – the centrepiece for a menu of punchy, regional Thai dishes by head chef Pipat “Noomie” Yodmunee (ex-Magic Mountain Saloon, Rice Paper Scissors). “There are lots of beautiful ways that Thai [cooks] – especially in certain regions like Isan and the south, where Noomie’s from – preserve and ferment things that Noom is really going to champion,” says Hodges.

Pair your drinks with charcoal-grilled skewers of baby octopus, pork jowl or ox tongue. Or order big from a line-up of house-fermented Isan-style pork sausages and glass noodles, spicy spatchcock with turmeric and galangal, Northern-style raw beef with toasted sticky rice, and a fried banana blossom salad.

The pair have also brought award-winning bartender Nathan Beasley (ex-Black Pearl, Byrdi) on board to develop the cocktail program. He’s been experimenting with a rotary evaporator (also known as a rotovap) – a high-tech piece of equipment commonly used in labs, as well as high-end bars – for a gentle distillation process that extracts more delicate flavours.

“It’s a cool way to focus on flavours that traditionally wouldn’t be able to stand up to distillation because of the temperature,” says Hodges. “Like mint, for example, becomes really bruised with heat, but with the pressure distillation you can capture a more pure and gentle organic flavour.”

The results include flavourful, textural cocktails like the C&T (fig and apple brandy, salted celery and quinine) or the Spro Tini (gentian, cinnamon, lacto-fermented nectarine and coffee from neighbouring roastery Disciple), plus a non-alcoholic whey soda made from cheese waste.

Bar Spontana
4 Saxon Street, Brunswick
No phone

Hours:
Wed & Thu 4.30pm–11pm
Fri 4.30pm–midnight
Sat 12pm–midnight

barspontana.com
@barspontana