Bat Country

Randwick has joined the small bar party and they've invited Hunter S. Thompson. The Gonzo journalist and his drug-fuelled adventures in correspondentland (aka Vegas) are the inspiration for the suburb's first proper small bar, specifically that famous line as he sped through the desert hallucinating monsters: ''We can't stop here, this is bat country.''

In reality, you can stop here and it's not quite bat country. The Thompson touches are actually quite subtle - Rolling Stone magazine articles on the bathroom walls, music from the '70s and co-owner Collin Perillo's Hawaiian shirt and bucket hat.

Cocktails are Perillo's first love, considering he hails from esteemed London bar Milk and Honey. He has spent the past few years consulting bar owners in Australia until finally finding the right spot in Randwick for his wife's Hunter S. Thompson obsession to be unleashed.

The strong mescal and rum cocktails would please her muse but the Espresso Cabrone (mescal, averna, cold coffee, angostura, $18) is too sugary and thin for me.

The Hollywood Sour (Calvados, angostura, apple, vanilla, almond, $17) is the pick of the bunch; wonderfully smooth and a rich red in colour. The cocktails aren't trying to be too complicated, just good ol' fashioned ingredients shaken and stirred into something from the pages of Rum Diaries. Expect plenty of tropical flavours and dark spirits.

The wine list includes a few little-known gems such as Spain's Radio Boka tempranillo ($8) or Mendoza's Alma Negra mistero ($11).

Stools along the bar host couples having a drink before a movie at the Ritz Cinema across the road but most people seem to be here for dinner too.

''There's plenty of nice places for a meal in Randwick and a couple of really divey sports clubs for a pint but there's not much in the middle,'' Perillo says. ''We wanted a place where you could take a date or where you could have a nice meal with your mates; something with the same calibre as the CBD or Surry Hills for the good people of Randwick, to save them a taxi ride.''

The succinct dinner menu is oddly designed with cheese and salumi plates in between a rump steak, san choy bow, whole market fish and stuffed portobello mushrooms. I suppose it channels the wild abandon of a Hunter S. Thompson sojourn but for the mere hungry punter, it's difficult to know how or what to order. It's not quite share food, not quite individual.

We settle on chef and co-owner Tim Dengate's ''famously tender'' salt and pepper squid ($16.50) to start and the san chow boy with free-range chicken, crisp vegies and hoisin ($15.50) for mains with a side order of ''Rumple Spudskins'' ($8). An odd combination indeed.

The crispy potato skins with garlic cream and truffle were beautifully cooked and impossible to stop eating.

The rest was only OK but locals seem to be tripping over themselves to get a table here. In fact, the place is packed almost every night of the week. Perillo says he even opened on Christmas Day, just a couple of weeks after opening, and was full.

The people of Randwick have spoken and they want Hunter S. Thompson to stay.

The lowdown

You'll love it if … you don't want to trek to Surry Hills for a good bar.
You'll hate it if … you trekked from Surry Hills expecting something better.
Go for … Hollywood Sour, Rumple Spudskins.