A brand new enterprise by the homeowners of Bar Elvina, Randy’s is the brand new child on the block, shifting into the ground-floor area beforehand occupied by the group’s much-loved sandwich bar Sandy’s.
Homeowners Andy Emerson (ex-co-owner of The Passage, Acme, Bar Brosé and Prince of York), Jesse McTavish (ex-North Bondi Fish and co-founder of High Paddock and The Kettle Black) and Nick Musgrave initially needed the area to function a sandwich store by day and a wine bar by evening.
“Sadly, it took us 11 months to acquire our liquor licence and, when it was granted, we deeply yearned for our wine bar idea to come back to life,” Emerson tells Broadsheet. In order that they made it a devoted ingesting area. “Randy’s is the grownup model of Sandy’s. Enjoyable, quick, loud and refined. Given the intimate area, it might turn out to be slightly Randy.”
The informal bar is extra freewheeling than its upstairs sibling, requiring no bookings or dedication. Seating a complete of 26 friends, the area transitions from breezy lunches to loud and quick dinners set to the backdrop of techno, hip-hop and Afrobeats. The scale of the venue units the tone for the service too, permitting for personalised touches like impromptu meals and wine tastings.
The menu is compact and ever-evolving, made up of 10 small plates designed to be eaten with fingers or chopsticks and heavy on summery seafood dishes befitting of the situation. There’s a chilly larder bar the place oysters and sashimi are ready to order alongside hand-filleted sardines in lemon and olive oil, fried baguettes with smoked butter, and burrata with heirloom tomatoes hand-picked from the kitchen backyard on the terrace.
The present stopper is a “bug bun” that Emerson describes as a lobster roll on steroids, with Moreton Bay bug meat and Marie Rose cocktail sauce on a house-made milk bun.
The wine record leans on lo-fi kinds from all around the world, shining a lightweight on lesser-known varietals (suppose blaufrankisch, zweigelt and weissburgunder from Austria, txakolina from Basque Nation and carignan from McLaren Vale).
“We love exploring and discovering distinctive varietals, places and producers … We’ll do a tasting and lean in direction of essentially the most obscure and distinctive small allocation wines, so that you may discover the record altering day by day,” says Emerson.
The cocktails are aperitif type with a heavy citrus spine, adorned with edible garnishes from the terrace backyard. An oyster shell martini (made with Never Never Oyster Shell Gin) is a crowd favorite, served with an accompanying freshly shucked oyster.
From the meals and cocktails to the inside design by Julia Sullivan of Caswell Group, Randy’s is a seaside bar by way of and thru, full with rattan gentle shades, pink marble counters and bar tops, and west-facing canteen-style home windows that permit in spectacular views of the sundown.
Randy’s Wine
Shop 2/50 Old Barrenjoey Road, Avalon Beach
Hours:
Thu to Mon 12pm–10pm
