Swill Magazine #1
Please Note:
Our team is out of the office from Friday, 20th December and will not be fulfilling any orders until Monday, 6th January.
When Anton first opened Shady Pines - and it remains my favourite bar in Australia to this day - he contravened some pretty sacred Sydney rules. Apart from making delicious drinks, he and the other bartenders were nice to people. They made sure everyone was comfortable. Everyone, no matter who they were, got the same friendly hello when they walked down those dark stairs off Crown Lane.
The same rules apply to every business he runs, from Shady Pines, Baxter Inn and Frankie's Pizza, to Alberto’s Lounge and Restaurant Hubert.
How could you not want to work in that environment?
All the same, it’s been a wild six months. I left an editorship of seven years at The Sydney Morning Herald running arguably the country’s most influential restaurant guide to start Swill - a completely untested product published by a hospitality company that has never printed more than a menu.
But that didn’t matter to me. If anything, it was a big part of the appeal.
Much the same way I took a leap to work with the Swillhouse gang, they’ve taken that same leap with me. I’m not sure anyone else would let me publish a story about America’s last rock’n’roll bikini bar alongside a piece about magical seaweed in Tasmania and a pub in Suffolk whose main talking point is a mummified human leg hanging over the bar. Ever wanted to know where to get excellent tinned soup in Beirut? The answer to this, and many other pressing questions, are held within these pages. Please enjoy what we’ve made. We have no idea if you’ll like it."
- Myffy Rigby Editor
Swill: An all-access pass to the most powerful voices in food.