This retro servo draws crowds with live music, fire pits and deep-fried lasagne sangas

Pub dining$$$$

As golden late afternoon light splays across Port Kembla’s main street, Lloyd Hendriksen and Vince Gibbs, owner-operators of Wollongong bar and restaurant Roy’s Restobar, are pumping out cocktails and curated sandwiches with impressive alacrity given they’re inside a former shipping container.

The pair have already conquered a last-minute power issue caused by recent storms but their one-day pop-up kitchen headquarters on the forecourt of food, music and art venue The Servo is cranking out food and drinks to a swelling queue.

Martin’s Ridge pork cordon bleu sangas at The Servo.Sitthixay Ditthavong

More and more people drift in – all ages, some with dogs or children – to warm their hands at fire pits, shoot cues at an outdoor pool table or station themselves on old-school plastic-coloured chairs beside tables built from red and green Castrol oil drums. Festoon lights glow from the original mushroom-like central rotunda as the gas flame of the nearby Port Kembla steelworks burns against the Illawarra escarpment.

Gibbs is whipping up glasses of Roy’s mojito, a deep sweet citrus marvel made with Surry Hills distillery Brix’s white cane spirit, aged rum, lime juice and raw sugar; and tumblers of negroni classico, a magenta-red mix of Jance dry gin, Regal Rogue vermouth and Campari. Manning the grill and cooker, Hendriksen levers slabs of pork cordon bleu and deep-fried lasagne onto a panoply of soft white open buns laid out before him.

There’s a swelling queue, led by music legends Reg Mombassa and brother Peter O’Doherty, who are minutes away from performing with their band Dog Trumpet on The Servo’s stage inside the old workshop building. Soon, Mombassa is munching intently on Hendriksen’s hot fried fish sandwich, a fat lovely oozy number laced with pickled chilli and iceberg lettuce. O’Doherty is tackling the hash brown sandwich with Louisiana remoulade and parsley, and declaring, “Hoo ha” between each bite.

Photo: Sitthixay Ditthavong

We’re hoeing into Roy’s pork cordon bleu and deep-fried lasagne bun-beauties, both crackerjack stand-outs in their menu of four sandwiches today. The former’s thick ribbons of coiled pork and melty cheese inside a crispy golden coating are a magical thing within soft white bread and creamy gushes of horseradish and dill sauce. I am equally beholden to the lasagne, a perfectly encased mini mountain of crumbed pasta and sauce that, festooned with soft parmesan shavings, shoots herby sugo down my wrists.

Based at what was once a 1950s Mobil petrol station at the top of Port Kembla’s main shopping strip, The Servo’s easygoing community vibe creates the sort of place where food spills do not matter. Opened in 2018 and running Thursday to Sunday each week, its laidback retro hub-hub is overseen by James Spink, who curates a menu of live music acts, art exhibitions and workshops, makers’ markets and a revolving menu of food trucks and collaborations with chefs from far and wide.

Food pop-ups have come from Papi’s Birria Tacos, El Cantina, Pho King Delicious, Messina, 2 Smoking Barrels, and many others, and he’s hosted gigs for acts ranging from The Pretty Littles to Quivers, Elana Stone, Charm Of Finches and Mikelangelo and the Long Lost Friends. Spink has also developed a bespoke beer, PK Lager, a collaboration with Seeker Brewing from nearby Unanderra. Cracking open a can on The Servo’s concrete forecourt between bites of Roy’s juicy sandwiches may equate to heaven.

As Dog Trumpet take the stage inside the venue’s mural-edged former workshop building, a storm lights up the evening clouds above plumes of steam billowing from the Port Kembla steelworks in the distance. The Servo’s crowds sway to the music, Hendrickson and Gibbs sling more buns and cocktails and the steel plant’s gas flame fires on.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

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