Reserve Wine Bar

A smart renovation has converted the former Reserve Bank into an intimate space thanks to wooden partitions and dim lighting, including a light installation behind the bar consisting of hundreds of empty bottles. Aproned staff deliver service as crisp as the Ross Hill pinot noir that the knowledgeable barman pours you. The list here encompasses more than 350 wines – good thing they have the downstairs bank vaults to store them in. How about some oysters to go with them ($3 each) or chilli-dusted school prawns and aioli ($12)? “We are not a restaurant” the website modestly admits, but the food here hits the mark. The big classic cheese plate ($26) offers a selection of Australian and imported cheeses, there’s a charcuterie one ($28) and some deliciously rich duck sliders ($21). Reserve Wine Bar is somewhere you’d happily spend an entire evening, sharing plates and sampling wines from a tome the size of a Russian novel. It was opened late in 2013 by a coalition of wine fans – an IT specialist, a coffee shop owner and a wine journalist – who were determined to get it right, and they have. This place is all class.