A whisky collector, PS40 bartender and bottle of Ice Magic walk into a new bar ...
Pack up the Kingswood and head to Silver's Motel in Enmore to relive the great Aussie road trip.
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The spirit of the great Australian road trip has been distilled into Silver's Motel, a new Enmore Road bar serving a 300-strong whisky collection alongside bright-green Midori Splice slushies until 2am most nights.
Like the highway motel your dad pulled into after a gruelling six hours behind the wheel, Silver's is all nostalgia and unpretentious charm. Behind the art deco exterior, it's all vinyl bar seating, walnut laminate veneers and sunlight filtering through venetian blinds. Funk queen Chaka Khan is playing over the speakers, rare whiskys are hooked up to a line of spirit dispensers, and there's a conspicuous bottle of Cottee's Ice Magic behind the bar.
Silver's Motel is the second venture from acclaimed bartender Michael Chiem, who owns and operates PS40, recognised as The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide's Bar of the Year in 2023. This time around, Chiem has partnered with former employee, bartender and whisky enthusiast Tynan Sidhu.
'We've always had a fascination with roadside motels,' Sidhu says. 'They're these beautiful time capsules of the 𝄒70s and 𝄒80s, and they really spoke to the kind of environment we wanted to create here in Enmore.'
Enmore, which has become one of Sydney's go-to destinations for a night out over the past two years, feels more laid back than its Kings Cross cousin. With a 90-person capacity, Silver's Motel is set to be the largest bar on the strip, but Chiem says it was important for the pair to lean into the suburb's characteristic approachability.
'The concept came from looking around at all these fancy hotel bars [that were opening in Sydney at the time] and thinking, well, we're definitely not one of those – we're more of a motel bar,' Chiem explains.
'You know, somewhere that's approachable and warm, somewhere you can come and go as you please.'
That means plenty of seating, at tables, booths and along the shiny veneer of the nine-metre-long bar. It also means a friendly bartender is on hand and eager to walk you through their whisky selection – demystifying a liquor that can be intimidating for some.
Chiem says that same down-to-earth approach carries through to the drinks list, which features eight house cocktails, three whisky sours, a tight selection of mostly craft beers (the Crown Lager and GB Bitter being two necessary exceptions) and mostly Australian winemakers (save for the champers, of course), with standouts like Patrick Sullivan and Samantha May.
'Our drinks aren't too over-the-top,' Chiem says. 'They're very considered, very comfortable, and very delicious, but we're not trying to force new things onto people.'
The house cocktail list ($24 each) channels rustic country cooking: the Semi Gloss cocktail is a three-day process of burning down mandarin peels to create a syrup, paired with gin, Margan vermouth, lemon verjuice and orange bitters; while the Marigold Rush is a whisky sour using freshly muddled marigolds.
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