Good Bars and Pubs

[PCL]

We are blessed in Melbourne to have a wide selection of bars to choose from. We have become famous for the 'hole-in-the-wall' format of obscure word of mouth watering holes, each sporting its own brand of funk/grunge/class/depravity.

Sydney does pubs, art deco street corner facades, pokies blaring in a side room, and regular steak/parma nights.

Sure, I've just described some cliches, but I think it's time we had a look at bars/pubs/clubs. The gastro-pub thing is alive and well, but I'd like to think a little about grog. Where do we like to drink, how do we like to drink, what do we eat with our drink, and what's good and bad in terms of where we go, how we get there, and what we do there.

Any takers??

[PCL]

I take it there are no takers.

That this may turn out into a one-person blog/crusade to discuss grog, where to drink it and how to drink it.

Well then, so be it!!

[Taubear]

Alrighty then I will chip in with my 2 bobs worth. I love the Summit bar on level 47 of the Australia Square building on George St Sydney. It opens a 5pm and closes late and has the best view in the city for a bar. There is a restaurant up there as well which looks good but I have'nt had the opportunity to dine there yet. They do a great range of cocktails, muddles, mocktails, martinis and have a good bar snack menu........and the wait staff are as attractive as the view.

http://www.summitrestaurant.com.au/

Edited May 16, 2006 by Taubear (log)

[piazzola]

I like pubs to stay as pubs and bars to be a bit more formal and not just "el cheapo" casual bar types so much for Chapel street that could represent any outer suburban street in the outskirts of any large city in the world yet the cafes and restaurants rip you off when it is time to get the bill and there is ambience and every joint claims to be glamourous where in fact they are not most cafes look like beach side joints.

Very often we try to imitate Sydney too much too often and we have lost our ways Federation Square stinking architecture not to mention the ugly pub in places of the old gas and fuel corp building.

Victoria Habour and Docklands great expanse and yet unable to come up with graceful architecture not to mention the restaurants and pubs they are just cold and ugly dark holes and sombre and for most people not afordable. It ain't Circular Quay!

My favourite joint is a rough old pub with a bad reputation where I can get a quite drink no fuss not out of pocket expense perhaps pub meal nothing fancy.

[PCL]

For the record, Melbourne does bars better than Sydney. The bars in Melbourne worthy of note are generally not heavily promoted if at all, and would boast a signature style/ambience/culture even.

piazzola, can I ask you to name some of the pubs you enjoy?

Federation Square venues are generally catering for the afterwork salary crowd and of course, tourists. For instance, just across the street in a lane, there's Misty's. It's been there for a while now, with a good selection of bohemian/fringe types mixing it with suits in the know. The shifting lights display is a highlight, as is the ever-changing City Lights exhibit across the laneway. Cocktails are good, but prices can be steep for the more exotic picks.

In the Sydney CBD, I have yet to find somewhere I can go to drink and talk. One never seems to be able to talk in a Sydney bar. But I guess the attractive staff and clientele make up for it!! Can't even remember the last time I had a quality cocktail in Sydney.

[PCL]

First cab off the rank:

Double Happiness, Liverpool Lane, Melbourne.

This is one of the latest hole-in-the-wall incarnations in Melbourne. Although open for a few years now, it is still fresh, still pleasant, and still vibrant. Excellent Asian/Chinese themed cocktails, super knowledgeable staff and bar skills and sensibility reminiscent of the most serious of drinking establishments.

The decor is Maoist, with propaganda and art hung on the walls and matching Chinese tea-house occasional tables and stools. The fireplace helps bring it all together on nights such as those we're experiencing now (winter!!) and if it gets too much, get out the back into the cosy bamboo planted courtyard for breather.

Now, I've been there quite a bit recently, say every second night or so and the following is a fair representation of what we drink:

- Havana Club dark rum, squeeze of lime, dash of Coke

- Vodka Martini's... four olives on a skewer...

- Lychee Martini's

- Matusalem Gran Solera aged rum, straight up

Excellent place to sit, talk, drink, make-plans-for-world-domination....

[oesophagus]

By and large, I reckon Melbourne does better bars (and many more of them; it's the licensing laws) and Sydney does better drinks (people here seem willing to pay more, and have a thing for the classics).

There are exceptions, obviously, but I think it comes down to what you're looking for. Sydney really doesn't do the boho-chic thing well in bars, that's for sure.

Great drinks:

- Lotus, Sydney

- Der Raum, Melbourne

- Icebergs Bar, Sydney

- Bentley, Sydney

- Aperitif, Sydney

- Longrain, Sydney

- Hugo's Bar Pizza (if you can stand the crowd), Sydney

- Gertrude Street Enoteca

Great bars:

- Melbourne Supper Club

- The Croft Institute, Melbourne

- Ilk Bar, Melbourne

- Meyers Place, Melbourne

- St Jerome's, Melbourne

- Melt, Sydney

- Transit, Melbourne

- Misty, Melbourne

- Double Happiness, Melbourne

- De Nom, Sydney

- Bayswater Brasserie, Sydney

There's a lot to be said, too, for encouraging your local bartender in the right direction by leaning towards the great old drinks in the Old Fashioned, Negroni and Manhattan vein and never ordering anything with vodka or Coke in it (outside bBloody Marys and Cuba, respectively), avoiding lychees wherever you can and eschewing any bar where they put more than two olives in any given martini.

On the dining front, Melbourne is yet to offer really great snacks at most of its better bars - something the better Sydney watering holes (Longrain, Icebergs, Lotus, Bentley, Aperitif) have really nailed.

Sydney also has some very good gastropubs - I'm thinking Bistro Moncur, The Four in Hand, The Northbridge Bistro, Three Weeds, Grand National, the Palisade - all of which have excellent wine lists to boot.

[PCL]

By and large, I reckon Melbourne does better bars (and many more of them; it's the licensing laws) and Sydney does better drinks (people here seem willing to pay more, and have a thing for the classics).

There are exceptions, obviously, but I think it comes down to what you're looking for. Sydney really doesn't do the boho-chic thing well in bars, that's for sure....

.....

There's a lot to be said, too, for encouraging your local bartender in the right direction by leaning towards the great old drinks in the Old Fashioned, Negroni and Manhattan vein and never ordering anything with vodka or Coke in it (outside bBloody Marys and Cuba, respectively), avoiding lychees wherever you can and eschewing any bar where they put more than two olives in any given martini.

On the dining front, Melbourne is yet to offer really great snacks at most of its better bars - something the better Sydney watering holes (Longrain, Icebergs, Lotus, Bentley, Aperitif) have really nailed.

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I would beg to differ on the great drinks front and the leaning towards the classics. Anyhow, it doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of things because innovation should always be at the forefront of any endeavour. I have always found Sydney bars simply too crowded loud and really, drinks a little flat or overdone or just not done. Intimacy, that's something which is lacking in Sydney.

With respect to Lychees, coke and olives, it would be a matter of preference once again. The balance in the drink is all that matters really, if its tasty, so be it, if its not your cup of tea, then someone else might enjoy it. Being too prescriptive I think, lends to a stagnation of perception and can also stifle the adventurer in us. Having said that, there is only really one way of making a beurre blanc