135 Enmore Road was once home to a legendary hairdressers’ named Marie-Louise Salon. It’s testament to the vintage chic of the Porteno crew (most notably front-of-house queen Sarah Doyle and owner-chef/husband Elvis Abrahanowicz) that the bright pink ‘n’ mauve exterior and standout curved windows of the 1950s original are still key features of their new tapas bar/diner. 

A retro Spanish/Argentinian sensibility is also part of the Porteno charm – at other venues like Wyno x Bodega, Continental Deli and the alma mater in Surry Hills. That upbeat tapas-bar feel continues at this latest addition to Enmore Road’s ‘coolest street in Sydney’ line-up.

If you can grab a downstairs seat – bar stools, tiled floor, flamenco and Don Quixote prints – you’ll get the best of Bar Louise. Behind the long bar, Continental Deli’s wine guy in a flat cap, Melvin Haxaire-Christophe (also from Enmore’s very cool P&V drinks merchants), helps set the scene. Order a fino (sherry) and a gilda – anchovy, pepper and olive on a toothpick, a Continental fave – while you study the menu for more.

It’s an “I want one of everything” list, dished up in typical tapas terracotta. Spoon out your share onto cute, retro-patterned plates. Riffing on the Spanish tune, a Russian salad is light and fluffy potato and prawns in mayo, but topped with feathery bonito flakes. Like the cuttlefish in its ink – super-tender, thick, black, rich sauce, lick the plate clean kind of stuff – it’s memorably good. Of the house meats, sobrassada (raw, cured sausage) adds oomph to a classic egg tortilla, with crisps and morcilla (black pudding) is wonderful over sweet-and-spicy peas.

Related story: Say hello to Bar Louise, the new tapas bar from the Porteno team 

Escalivada of charred eggplant and piquillo peppers (watch out, some can be lethally piquant) and a carrot and cava granita dessert with hints of ginger and chilli, and a sheep’s milk yoghurt icecream on top… We’d be back for those any time.

The drinks list is long and interesting, from the sherry space – fino, amontillado, manzanilla and more – through to Spanish and Spanish-grape-based wines. 

Upstairs is rust red and cream, an original fireplace, a chocolate-y banquette with great cushions, and black, bent-metal framed mirrors. Style goddess Sarah Doyle says a thick window curtain is on its way to make things cosier. Here it’s a little noisier and service still on training wheels – a universal challenge right now – but still a fine place to be.

Once a hair salon, once the super-popular Stanbuli Turkish diner, and now the stylish home of great drinks and snacks and salsa beats… what’s not to love about Bar Louise?

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