Somer Sivrioglu’s new Barangaroo cocktail bar and eatery, Baharat, has a drinks menu featuring cocktails such as Bloody Marys made with pickled shalgam (a fermented drink), and sumac and black-salt Margaritas. But the Turkish chef says it can be more fun to let your mood take the lead.

“Yes, there’s a cocktail list, but our bartenders Emre [Bilgin] and Berk [Abdullahoglu] are great at improvising,” he tells Broadsheet. “Tell them what you feel like – sour, sweet, spicy, zesty – and the food you’re ordering, and they’ll make you something to match.”

The concise food menu consists of snacks that, ordered together, form a substantial meal. There are dips such as hummus and baba ganoush; crisp, deeply golden falafels; and ox tongue. Pastirma (cured beef) and sujuk (fermented, spiced beef sausage) hang in a display window to be served on their own or as toppings for pide, which also come with Anatolian cheeses or za’atar. Lamb tandir is cooked in a wood stove and served by the 100 grams. The lahmacun (minced meat on flatbread) is made by a chef from Gaziantep, in south-central Turkey, which, according to Sivrioglu, is home of the best lahmacun in Turkey.

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“You can come have some dip – hummus, baba ganoush – with oven-baked bread and then choose some other dishes. That’s how we eat in Turkey: over a long period. It’s not entree, main, dessert; we sit and graze, eat slowly, have a long conversation.”

One of the oldest spice bazaars in the world is Misir Carsisi in Istanbul, so it’s fitting that Istanbul-born Sivrioglu’s new outlet is called Baharat, which in Turkish means spice. In Arabic, baharat is a spice mix that typically contains black pepper, cardamom, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, coriander and paprika. Sivrioglu says the elements can differ from house to house, restaurant to restaurant. He’s working on spice mixes for the eatery using organic ingredients from Turkey.

“Everyone has their own baharat mix. I want to do five or six special mixes for the restaurant. There’s a spice shop I work with that does a janissary mix that’s very pungent, and we can do some mixes that work with fish, with beef, with mince.”

Baharat is the sister venue to Anason, which is also in Barangaroo, and takes the place of Sivrioglu’s Turkish kebab shop, Tombik. The 50-seater was closed in early 2023 to make way for Baharat. The team dispensed with the vertical kebab spits, and added displays that showcase cured meats and jars of spices.

In the years since the pandemic started, Sivrioglu’s eateries have been fluid: suburban stalwart Efendy closed in 2021 after 14 years in Balmain, and reopened 15,000 kilometres away in Istanbul, where Sivrioglu spends a few months each year as a judge on Masterchef Turkey. Baharat replaced Tombik, but the chef says a version of the kebab shop, which cut, marinated and wrapped its own meats, may be resurrected elsewhere in Sydney.

“We still have plans to do Tombik, but somewhere else that has more foot traffic.”

Baharat
Tower One, 100 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo

Hours:
Mon to Fri 12pm–late
Sat 4pm–late

baharat.com.au
@baharat.bar