The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Pub Guide has announced the winners in their 2014 edition. We recently highlighted just how good the Woolwich Pier Hotel’s renovations were (and how tasty the new food offering is), so its good to see those efforts being rewarded, with the hotel taking out the best pub award this year.
Venues
Venues
Not only has Hello Sailor been one of the more talked about Sydney bar openings of this year, it’s also lent its name to a verb (one that shouldn’t need much in the way of explanation). Indeed, thanks to Marco Faraone, Luke Redington and Mike Edkins it is now possible to go and get “sailor’d”.
We’ve tracked the growth of tapas bars that do real, proper pintxos across a few states now, and Perth is getting in on the act with its first proper taste of the San Sebastian specialty, with Wolf Lane’s Bar de Halcyon.
Sydney’s small bar revolution isn’t confined to the hipster hills of Surry or the born again CBD — even the plush and proper surrounds of the lower north shore have been getting in on the act.
Back in May we brought you the news of yet another addition to Sydney’s booming CBD bar scene, Papa Gede’s Bar. Well the doors are open and you’re likely to find that there’s a lot to like about this new bar.
They’ve undergone a beautiful renovation and recently reopened. The fitout is a classy one, with lots of royal blue and timber — and it also has one of the best views of Sydney of any pub going around…
Brisbane has welcomed a new bar, described as a “counter-culture whiskey lounge”, to Fortitude Valley. Called Sabotage Social, the focus is on top quality drinks without the attitude that sometimes goes along with it, according to co-owner Bradzilla Cochrane.
“What? No. We can’t stop here. This is bat country.”
Those words of Raoul Duke — Hunter S. Thompson’s fictional literary alter ego — open the 1998 movie, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and have inspired the name of a new bar opening in Randwick: Bat Country.
“The main point was, it was always going to be American Whiskey and wine focused with “real food” on offer – that never changed,” said Andy Freeman when asked about the evolution of his new Perth bar, Varnish on King.
A new bar in Bondi hopes to cash in on the popularity of the primal agave spirit, mezcal. They’ve got on board ex-Cafe Pacifico and El Topo agave nut Brett Harris and the venue will be called Mr Moustache…
If you’ve read these pages over the last year or so you would know that the bar scene in Perth is on a roll, thanks in no small part to the role played by the new crop of small bars that have opened up.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: dumplings are tailor-made drinking food. Small enough to nibble away on over conversation, salty and moreish enough to warrant another bottle of beer, or wine, or round of cocktails…