Odd Culture Group has just opened their highly anticipated venue, Razz Room – an underground daiquiri bar and discotheque, and to celebrate Razz Room will be offering free daiquiris to the first 100 guests who visit across the opening weekend of April 17th to the 20th.
As mentioned previously, Razz Room is the first of two venues to open on York St, marking the group’s first venture into Sydney’s CBD. So, what can we expect?
The venue offers two distinct areas, the upper bar, and the sunken dancefloor, worked to feel intimate, yet laid back, the upper bar serves drinks and food throughout the evening until late. While the sunken dancefloor will offer entertainment with a mix of live DJ’s, musicians, and performances running from 7pm every night until late.
Odd Culture Group CEO Rebecca Lines says the venue’s atmosphere will shift throughout one night.
“Razz Room will really change shape throughout a single evening. Earlier, it’s geared towards post-work drinks with a happy hour, substantial food offering, and music at a level where you can still talk. It’s relaxed and social, but it has a clear point of view,” Lines explains.
“As the evening progresses at Razz Room, you can expect the music to get a little louder and the focus will shift to live performance with recurring residencies and DJs that flow from disco to house, funk, and jazz.”
The concept was born as a nod to the underground clubs of New York, the ones that existed before disco shifted into a different form. Taking inspiration from GGʼs Barnum Room and The Mudd Club.
“The space told us what it wanted to be. Yes, it’s quite literally underground, but we wanted to dig further into what ‘underground means culturally,” Lines explains. “Disco started as a counter culture. We kept returning to the essence of grunge and glamour in 70s era NYC discotheques with Paradise Garage a real point of inspiration when it came to capturing the spirit of the venue”.
“But to be clear, Razz Room is no nostalgia project, itʼs a reimagining of the next era of the discotheque.ˮ
And the signature cocktail for this venue? The daiquiri.
Group Beverage Manager Jordan Blackman says the daiquiri was a no brainier.
“Ultimately refreshing, a well-balanced daiquiri is unrivalled and transcends the cocktail world. The daiquiri is an incredibly malleable drink that means many different things to different people. It really lends itself to riffs and playful takes – we’ll see how far down the rabbit hole one can really go. Shaken, frozen, blended and beyond,ˮ said Blackman.
Razz Roomʼs signature serve will be the “Razz Daiquiriˮ, which according to Blackman will use an evolution of the regal shake cocktail technique.
“The Razz Daiquiri will see an entire citrus peel in the shaker; however, we’re going sans pith to hone in on all those bright aromatics and elevated zest from the oils, whilst avoiding any bitterness from the inner rind,ˮ Blackman explains.
“We’ve also subbed out the traditional grapefruit for its sweeter ancestor, the pomelo, looking to build layers of flavour with nuanced floral and tropical notes. We’re chasing depth, complexity, and texture without wandering too far from the feeling of a real, classic daiquiri”.
Blackman also hints for guests to order the off-menu ‘nuclear daiquiriʼ and to keep an eye out for the “snaiquiriˮ menu offering small, sipping daiquiris. The menu will also offer rum slushies, and a tight list of wine, beers, spirits, and cocktails.
While the Razz Room food menu will offer snacks and small dishes such as oysters Rockerfeller, prawn cocktail and the Dirty Royale Cheeseburger. As night falls the late-night menu takes over, featuring what the Razz Room team hints as “the best cheese toastie you’ll ever eat.”
The “Velvet Hourˮ (happy hour) will run from 4pm – 6pm serving up classic, dirty, or strawberry daiquiris for $13 alongside other drink and food specials.
Group Entertainment & Operations Manager Sabrina Medcalf, says the enetertainment program nods to the venues soul.
“The Razz Room programming is anchored in disco, funk, soul, and early house-adjacent sounds, always approached through a contemporary lens,ˮ said Medcalf. “Expect soulful, genre-fluid performances deeply rooted in disco tradition, but also forward-facing, expressive, and unafraid to blur boundaries.”