Poly

Mat Lindsay and his team changed the dining game with Ester, one of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants. But they insist Poly is not a restaurant. It’s a wine bar. Poly is less formal, looser and complements Ester. It’s housed in the Paramount House Hotel and so also serves food to hotel guests.

This is not the place to try France’s most famous by-the-law AOP wines. As at Ester, the choice of wines here is guided by the philosophy of organic and biodynamic viniculture with minimal intervention. The list is broad and takes in interesting and unusual wine, and focuses on regions and varieties sommelier Julien Dromgool likes. Such as wines from Sicily and the Alsace region in France.

Joining the 160-strong rotating list of cloudy, tart, fizzy, bold and beautiful drops (25 are available by the glass) is a shorter but similarly geared list of beers, sakes, spirits and cocktails. For example there is Wildflower from Marrickville on tap.

The succinct, wine-friendly menu is made up of snacks cooked in a custom-built hearth. There’s an audibly crunchy blood-sausage pie, and dish of witlof served with a Brillat-Savarin cheese sort-of dip. The onion rings are delicate, salty and have a touch of sugar to balance out the vinegar. There’s also a long, thin pastry cigar packed with rich duck and hints of Asian spices.