With a promising new talent in the kitchen, the future of this model Fremantle small bar looks promising

A chunky mauve LED light snaked its way around the balcony of The EsplanadeHotel. Closer to the markets, dramatic uplighting transformed the new Garde Hotel into a giant Grimace. At Leighton Beach’s waterside cafe-slash-art gallery Palette, guests ordered drinks crowned with thick, paisley caps of foam flavoured with ube: an earthy yam found in drinks and desserts across the Philippines. Major sporting events look good on Fremantle.Strange Company remains a key destination for dates, mates and plates.Luke Slatty.If you’re an especially good I Spy competitor, you might also have clocked a Dockers flag discretely hung inside the entrance of Strange Company: a neighbourhood bar that proves you can teach an old wetsuit factory new tricks. Taken on face value, Strange Company isn’t the kind of establishment you’d expect management to fly sporting colours or insignia. But if there’s a way to be of service to the Freo community, Strange Company will oblige, just as it has since it opened in 2015.Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.Sign upMeeting somewhere for that vital second date? Communal sofas fringe the backcorner of the bar: a demi-sunken living room giving low-key swinger party vibes.Cocktail enthusiasts and solo drinkers will want to snaffle bar stools where career bartenders make the art of dispensing great chat and drinks look easy. Check out the Batanga Vision: a svelte, Mezcal-enriched adaptation of the tequila and cola classic that a fellow drinker at the bar succinctly described as “witchy”. Pristine sound is a given, even in the toilets.If Strange Company’s look is hard to pigeonhole – “Bond villain lair meets co-working space” is the best I’ve got – it’s largely because Freo architects spaceagency crushed the brief for designing a multi-purpose venue that can cater to guests’ many whims and needs throughout the day. Spend enough time bending the elbow or quizzing staff about highlights from the knockout wine list and you’ll eventually get to know Greg Leaver: an established name in Freo’s hospitality landscape (The Wray Cafe, X-Wray, Il Lupo) and the most hands-on of the bar’s owners.While venue manager Alex Handley and bartender Amelia Smoker are among theother long-serving staff members you might recognise, some new faces have also joined the cast. Streetside vegetation has softened the look of Strange Company.Luke Slatty.One belongs to Sergion Guazzelli. Formerly of Blink Coffee, Guazzelli flips the space every morning into Il Brutto: an Italianate coffee bar where the focus is exceptional drinks and hospitality. (Portuguese-style egg tarts from Cafe Pastel are also part of its charm).But if you want something to eat other than jiggly custard encased in flaky pastry shells, Zane Morrison is a name you’ll want to remember. You want olives? You want Basque-style sausages that you douse with salsa verde? You want “drunken” Italian glera and other European cheeses and cured meats that have long anchored Strange Company’s food offering? Morrison, a Freo boy that counts Madalena’s and Cable Beach Club as former workplaces, has you covered. But if you let him, Morrison will also show you that the good ship Strange Company is equally at home navigating Asian waters as it is sailing through the Mediterranean.A plate of local La Delizia stracciatella beautified with plush Genovese basil leaves and gummy sun-dried cherry tomatoes is uncut la dolce vita. But once the warming spice of chilli crunch joins the party, the dish goes somewhere different. Different but no less rewarding.Octopus, that long-legged beauty found in so many seaside tavernas and osterias, is given the char siu treatment and glazed and grilled till dark and sticky. But even if such west-goes-east crossovers aren’t your jam, there’s enough pep in this menu to suggest Morrison is an emerging kitchen talent worth following.Like many younger chefs raised in the modern wine bar and social media era, ourman and his kitchen team adhere to the house-made, high acid, big flavour style of small plate cooking, even when they’re keeping things traditional. Straciatella with chilli crunch and sun dried tomatoes.Luke Slatty.So the bitey tabasco-esque hot sauce deployed in the thick-cut steak tartare is fermented in situ. Anchovy toasts topped with lardo are a glorious example of the surf and turf genre.While I would have liked more fattiness in the steak sandwich to counter the bite of the provolone and zippy tomato relish, I have zero notes on the bitter leaf salad: a dainty arrangement of canoes of witlof cradling clusters of crunchy sunflower seeds with verjus and a slash of bitter orange puree lending cut-through.European at heart, yet modern Australian in taste and execution, it’s a dish that’shard to categorise but all too easy to like. I can’t think of a better spirit dish to represent the continued brilliance of Strange Company.The low-down Atmosphere: helmed by a mix of experienced and emerging talent, this model small bar continues to lead by example. Go-to dishes: bitter leaf salad with verjus ($14), stracciatella with chilli crunch ($26), beef tartare with chilli and potato crisps ($28). Drinks: cocktails – and bartender chat – worth making the trip for (and, in the mornings, great coffee!) Cost: about $140 for two people. Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.Max Veenhuyzen is a journalist and photographer who has been writing about food, drink and travel for national and international publications for more than 20 years. He reviews restaurants for the Good Food Guide.From our partners