The Hideout

LOCATION
Right at the round about of Five Ways in Paddington.

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
There is a new place to escape the afternoon bore where you can relax by the wine racks and cool gray walls of the Hideout. Red light glows from the fluorescent key holes in the top corner of the restaurant making us wish we could lock this place away to be kept as our own little secret. The open bar creates a chatty atmosphere like the casual kitchen-conversation of a dinner party. Curious Paddington residents walk in and stand in front of the huge black board wine menu, pointing to and discussing possible choices of the mostly patriotic selection. Seating and tables are shuffled around as diners come and go, some standing around the open bar while others spill the chilled atmosphere out onto the path of Five Ways.

On this late spring afternoon, fingers gracefully hold glasses of 2009 Hesketh ‘Scissor Hands’ riesling while others move onto the stronger body of the 2008 La Linea Tempranillo. Black-clad waiters slide an old wooden ladder along the restaurant to reach for a diner’s favourite drop as they walk up the stairs to lounge onto the low couches. A flirting couple at the window bench top-up their glasses with the equally flirtatious 2009 Amisfield Saignee rosé. Presented with a cheese plate featuring glossy bowls of goat’s milk fetta and billowy pillows of bocconcini, they swipe the slices of toasted almond biscotti and fruit spelt with fig paste, before layering on cuts of the brie slab. Friends who have unexpectedly bumped into each other turn their casual rendezvous into a group catch-up and eye-off the cheese platter before ordering one themselves.

Our glasses are topped up with a second serving of the 2008 Woodgate Reserve pinot noir as ‘quick pre-drinks’ turn into cured meat plates and changed plans. The Hideout fills up with locals happy for a fresh change to their favourite Friday hangout, although shortly, it may become the new one.

Edwina Storie