Brunswick Street’s bar scene gets a jolt this week with the opening of Odd Culture, a combined bar and bottle shop focused on wild drinks that occupies a busy Fitzroy corner site.

The 200-square-metre space is set to become a destination for craft beer nerds, Australian spirit fans, and wine enthusiasts whether casual or connoisseur, thanks to its hand-picked range that covers all those bases with equal care.

Odd Culture is the brainchild of James Thorpe, who opened a bar in Sydney’s Newtown in 2021 to explore fermented drinks of all kinds, especially beers made with wild yeasts and wines that skew natural, organic or biodynamic. The nearby bottleshop sells those hard-to-find drinks for takeaway. In Fitzroy, however, both are under one roof.

Visitors will see people perched on stools drinking in the window before confronting a well-stocked bank of shelves and fridges. The team have brought down 44 kegs of wild ales they’ve been collecting for their Melbourne debut, as well as rare wines, some decades old.

Staff members, including sommeliers, will be floating around to offer suggestions or guide you towards a table to enjoy a bottle off the shelf. There’s no wine list – what you see for sale is what’s on offer.

At the rear, a Melbourne Bitter mural above a corner-hugging banquette adds a splash of local colour. It was painted by Bodie Jarman, the same artist who adorned the Newtown bar with a Reschs equivalent.

Twelve beer taps behind a green-tiled bar dispense sours, pale ales, imperial stout and the unofficial official beer, Melbourne Bitter, with at least half the taps rotating frequently. Opening choices include a collaboration between Wildflower (NSW) and France’s Brasserie Au Baron.

Cocktails are a mix of signature Newtown cocktails and Victorian-led drinks, such as The Gospel’s rye stirred with Saison vermouth and an artichoke amaro. Fermented elements headline all of them, meaning some cocktails take a week or two to prepare.

While Newtown has the space for a full kitchen, here the food is geared to drink-friendly ballast.

“It’s a beverage-driven business but if the demand for food is greater, we’ll increase the food,” says general manager Gerry Nass (ex Robbie Burns).

Buffalo mozzarella with mandarin and bottarga, Meatsmith charcuterie and pickles join the signature dish: chicken liver parfait doused in fish sauce caramel and studded with Chappy’s potato chips.

Open Sun-Thu noon-11pm, Fri-Sat noon-1am.

296 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, oddculture.group