The Thousands

After causing nothing but grief for The Man and nothing but convenience for the rest of us, The Beer Baron‘s loophole was sadly closed. No sweat for him really: since the Blind Pig tried to steal his mojo it was getting kind of old anyway. So baron Jed’s gone and opened up a bar instead!

The Dock is bang in the middle of the ‘fern, across the road from iconic Railz and that questionable sculpture. The location is pretty innocuous, as is the look: a chalked-on sign, chipped paint, solid woods, a bit of forlorn majesty in the leadlights and recovered furniture. The drinks list is similarly unpretentious: five bucks for a Carter or house wine, a tenner for house cocktails. And while it might not be to everyone’s taste, The Dock’s Skittle Brow (beer and Skittles) is peculiar enough to contend with Shady Pines‘ fresh juice and the Flinders’ pickle backs to become a signature drink. At the moment, the menu is limited: popcorn. It comes with your drinks. But there’s plans to have food delivered from a local cafe.

If there’s any extravagance at all to identify, the bathrooms are the size of a small terrace, making it impossible not to think “eight people should definitely not do coke in here”, and the whole flush/basin set up is from the future.

The combination of all this results in a place hinted at earlier – a bar. No prefixes or descriptors: it’s a bar. A commendable little local bar. And it could have been there for ages.