Sonny: An exciting wine bar

Sonny – Introduction

Sonny was established by Matt Breen now the owner and head chef at Ogee. Sonny is an exciting tiny bar and eatery in Hobart’s CBD opened to the delight of locals who are looking for interesting libations selected by the now owner Alister Robertson.

With Sonny now owned by Alister he will be keeping the vinyl turning on the player just inside the door as well as ensuring that the wine offerings continue to be eclectic and interesting.

The sounds coming from the turntable vary significantly from moment to moment. On our most recent visit we started with Purple by Shuggie Otis from his Freedom Flight album and finished with the long and rambling Cat People song from the horror film of the same name written and performed by the multi-talented David Bowie.

There are a few tables and a long bar that morphs into the kitchen at the far end of this interesting space. It is very narrow but this leads to a feeling of belonging and the high ceiling adds volume to the space.

There are always two or three pasta dishes so you can either come in for a glass of wine and a snack or two or you can settle in for the evening with a bottle or a magnum and eat your way through the menu while enjoying the music and the conversation.

The menu is currently fixed, however the dishes cover a range of textures and flavours. The photo above is house-made ravioli filled with goat curd with a thyme and hazelnut butter sauce, which was delicious.

We also ate pork cotoletta with braised white beans, prosciutto toasts with whipped goat curd and white anchovy on very good focaccia (made by Dino The Bread Guy), confit tuna and cucumber, Cos with egg sauce, cannoli and crudités to begin with – a very generous feast of small plates not in this order!).

A bottle of natural wine made by Owen Latta from Lattavino called Dexterous Contact Gris (skin contact Pinot Gris with no added sulphites) is a wonderfully flexible wine with a meal of many dishes and flavours but unsurprisingly especially good with the cotoletta. Owen describes his wine as unfined, unfiltered and untinkered and made from grapes grown using organic principles. The lack of sulphites in the wine made it alive!

It is likely that from the beginning of 2021 Sonny will drop the requirement for bookings and instead revert to walk-ins only. We will firm this up when the New Year arrives.

We should also mention that they are currently open on Sundays from 1pm, serving snacks that are listed on the chalkboard.

In the week leading up to Christmas, we enjoyed a snack of crab and salmon roe served on toast and a porchetta roll that was absolutely delicious.

You can find out more about Sonny by clicking on the link below:

Sonny Hobart