There’s just a week left of our 30 Bars in 30 Days odyssey, and as the journey approaches its end, I’m thinking our final lists will be as much about the bars we didn’t visit as the ones we managed to reach. 30 is a fraction of the bars this city has to offer, and as we hit the home straight, we keep hearing of new places popping up, exciting developments at old favourites and enough bar action to keep us going – well, all the way through to next March.
Features
Features
Well here it is folks a little photo gallery to prove to you that we have not been idle this Parched March. Below is a visual feast of some of the drinks, food and, most importantly, people that we’ve encountered along the way.
I’m over halfway through the Parched March odyssey now, and people often ask me how I feel. Answer: wonderful!
While it’s certainly an amazing journey, 30 Bars in 30 Days is a goal easily achieved within a healthy, balanced lifestyle. We’ve been averaging two bars on our nights out, eating well on the way and during the day I’ve found my energy for exercise – yoga, running, dog walking and swimming – has remained undiminished.
One of the aspects of Sydney bar culture that we should really be celebrating is its growing diversity. Many attribute this to legislative changes like the new ‘small bar license’ and ‘Primary Service Authorities’. Personally I’d like to think that Sydney’s (and indeed Australia’s) drinkers are reaching a new stage of enlightenment. Drinkers are driving change by demanding a new breed of bar.
Here’s what Parched March is about: friends around a table, nursing favourite cocktails, swapping stories, savouring tastes and aromas, welcomed by warm hosts and soothed by music.
When we started our 30 Bars in 30 Days odyssey, we were expecting great drinks and bars. But Parched March is much more than that. So far, it’s been a leisurely stroll through life’s finer pursuits: conversation, friendships, food, music, stories, ideas, interesting strangers, curios, history, philosophy and even a smattering of science. And a giant bull’s head..
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago in my Sun-Herald column, the concept of abstinence as the new black makes me uncomfortable. While I applaud anything that raises charity money…
Get set for a month of bar crawling with the Sun-Herald’s party person, Ms Amy Cooper, as she attempts to have a drink at as many licensed venues as possible in March, focusing on the variety, quality and originality of Sydney’s bar scene and promoting “responsible, mindful enjoyment of alcohol.”
“It doesn’t have to be Cuban to be good,” declares Norman Stein, owner of one of Sydney’s finest cigar shops ‘Bogart’s House of Fine Cigars’. ” Increasingly cigar makers based in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras and Brazil are producing cigars of similar, if not better quality, than those coming out of Cuba.”
Our lucky winners of the Havana Club Masterclass trip to Cuba have put their new knowledge to work and created some Cuban-inspired cocktails…
We have seen legislative changes including lockouts, increased security, bans on certain drinks and of course, the bans on glassware to reduce the number of glassing incidents. The latest call has been for a ban on pool cues and glass ashtrays.
The lucky winners of the Havana Club Rum Masterclass are hitting Club Habana for lunch, wishing they had just a little bit more time in Cuba…