Entertainment in Australia
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A
Manly Wharf Hotel
Harking back to 1950s design (all feature walls are bamboo and stone), the Manly Wharf Hotel is perfect for sunny afternoon beers. Tuck away a few schooners after a hard day in the surf, then pour yourself onto the ferry. Sports games draw a crowd and DJs liven up Sunday afternoons. Great pub food, too, with specials throughout the week.
reviewed
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B
Collins Quarter
This collection of bars is like a hotel without the rooms upstairs and without the bellhop palaver or aggressive pricing. It’s a grown-up space with few rough edges but has a timeless appeal. There’s a variety of different areas and moods. A magnolia tree sprouts from the courtyard and inside there’s a wood fire burning.
reviewed
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C
Waterbar
After a few martinis in the heart of Woolloomooloo’s Finger Wharf, time becomes meaningless and escape pointless. This lofty romantic space sucks you in to its pink-love world of candles, corners, deep lounges and ottomans as big as beds. Great for business (if you really must), but better for lurve.
reviewed
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D
Suncorp Piazza
The Suncorp Piazza is an open, outdoor theatre that screens free international sporting events, free movies during the school holidays and short films during festival periods. It also acts as a concert venue and a place for impromptu performances by street artists. Free swing dancing classes are held here on the last Saturday of every month.
reviewed
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E
Cargo Bar
This pioneering Darling Harbour bar still lures beautiful boys, babes and backpackers, who get wall-to-wall boozy after 11pm. Before the drinkers descend, savour the harbour views, tasty pizzas and salads. DJs and live bands fire things up.
reviewed
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F
Old Bar
A lounge atmosphere with nary a whiff of '70s shtick, Old Bar is old-school. Pinnies chink in the walkways and live music plays most nights. This is where DJs go on their nights off to enjoy the best off-the-beaten tracks. It's nothing flash, but that's why it's loved. There's always a need for affordable drinks and an uncontrived ambience.
reviewed
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G
Rob Roy
The Rob Roy is does live and local music, usually of the guitar variety. Its small back band room is watched over by a determined Johnny Cash, and its front bar is a kitschy collection of furniture. Entry fees are extremely affordable and sometimes free. (By the by, staff have reported spooky sightings and things that go bump in the night.)
reviewed
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H
Alumbra
Great music and a stunning location will impress – even if the Bali-meets-Morocco follies of the decorator don't.
reviewed
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Sydney Dance Company
Australia’s number-one contemporary-dance company has been lubricating the nation’s cultural psyche for more than 25 years, staging wildly modern, sexy, sometimes shocking works. SDC dance lessons are just $20! Performances are usually held across the street at Sydney Theatre.
reviewed
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J
Troika
Troika has a loyal bunch of mostly older unconventional followers who get on board for the intimate, gimmick-free surrounds. It's about decent drinks and good tunes, with booths and bar stools set close - conducive to conversation. And if conversation is waning, the walls are usually adorned with interesting art works on which to comment.
reviewed
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K
Blue Sky Brewery
Here’s a sparkling new drinking hall and brewery that caters for foodies and beer-lovers. A ‘snow rail’ keeps the average barflys’ beer cool, and you can try all seven premises-made brews on a taster-tray for $16. Foodwise, the malt from the brewery goes to the tablelands cattle, which end up in the kitchen. True-blue beery beef.
reviewed
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L
Loft
The Loft is far from lofty – it’s more like an open-plan office space – but the walls fold back and disappear, sweeping your eye out across Darling Harbour and beyond. Interior design is Moroccan chic and service is snappy. Book for high tea at high noon on Saturday and Sunday. Live music on Fridays.
reviewed
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M
Veludo
It's big, it's brassy, and it's got a balcony. Over two levels, Veludo's relatively late closing means that most St Kilda-ites have ducked in here after everything else has closed. A dark and sultry way to lose a few hours, especially during the cooler months, when you can couch it next to a roaring open fire. Humdrum food runs till late.
reviewed
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N
Top End Hotel
Popular with locals, this busy little entertainment enclave has several clubs and bars, including Lizards Outdoor Bar & Grill, with its lush tropical beer garden; the Rock ’n’ Country Bar, with pool tables on the deck and Elvis posters and guitars stuck to the roof (Darwin’s version of the Hard Rock Cafe!); and the Beehive Nightclub.
reviewed
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O
Musicians Club
A jolly place with a heaving mix of young and old. Country-music bands play on the weekends while the drinks flow. Two-up (gambling on the fall of two coins) is played on Friday and Saturday night from 22:00 to 02:00 - Broken Hill claims to have retained the atmosphere of a real two-up school and the locals are happy to give you lessons.
reviewed
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P
La Bog
This often jam-packed Irish pub is in Northbridge's backpacker heartland. It may be a package Irish franchise (there's one in Fremantle as well) but it's still a reasonable and popular place to sit and sip on a Guinness amongst friends. Live bands offer a fun night of dancing and the 06:00 close means you can grab an early-morn nightcap.
reviewed
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Q
Kinselas
In what used to be a funeral parlour, this Taylor Sq institution has come back from the dead more times than we care to recall. The downstairs is all art-deco stylings (spot the chapel), while Middle Bar upstairs is chic, mod and popular with international bright young things, with DJs spinning hip hop, funk and R&B.
reviewed
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R
Light Brigade Hotel
Charge into this curvy art deco pub for its relaxed ground-floor sports bar with a good-value menu ($10 weekday lunch), pool table and lots of black tiles and angular stainless steel. Upstairs beyond a huge clock face is chic Italian restaurant and cocktail bar La Scala On Jersey.
reviewed
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GPO
The old post office in Fortitude Valley is the setting for this funky bar. Downstairs you'll find a stylish bar filled with young trendies, while upstairs offers chilled tunes and the occasional live band. It seems the clientele are ready for a party any night of the week, as Paris Hilton discovered when she arrived late one Wednesday.
reviewed
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S
Cross Lounge
It's so hot and new the bouncers are working overtime. This classy disco sports a glowing pink bar, a lounge area for wallflowers and of course the hoppin' dance floor. Wear your best and get ready for slammin' house and funk music. Friday night is ladies' night, complete with male strippers. It's located above the snazzy Bourbon bar.
reviewed
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Unity Hall Hotel
Its late hours make this ungentrified pub (1875) Balmain's traditional last port of call. It has its own house band which plays trad jazz on Sunday afternoons and Friday evenings. There's more live music on Thursdays (acoustic) and Saturdays (various), while booty-shakers are looked after by a DJ playing upstairs every Saturday night.
reviewed
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U
Q Bar
With more reincarnations than Cleopatra over the years, this funky and eclectic joint (located in the Exchange Hotel) has DJs playing nightly. Weekends means house and dance music, but if you're not into that there's always the pool table and cocktail bar. On Fridays and Saturdays this place should be more accurately named Queue Bar.
reviewed
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V
Knopwood's Retreat
Adhere to the 'when in Rome…' dictum and head for Knoppies, Hobart's best pub, which has been serving ales to seagoing types since the convict era. For most of the week it's a cosy watering hole with an open fire. On Friday nights the city workers swarm and the crowd spills across the street.
reviewed
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W
Bar Me & El Rocco Jazz Cellar
Sydney’s first jazz club. Between 1955 and 1969 this was the city’s premier finger-snappin’, beret-wearing boho dive, hosting performances by Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan. Those heady days are long gone but live jazz is back on the agenda in the legendary rock-hewn basement. There are free fortnightly open-mic nights on Monday.
reviewed
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X
Barkly Hotel
The street-level public bar is the utopia of backpackers looking to sink a few pints, scream to the tunes on the jukebox and snog a stranger before last drinks are called. The rooftop bar feigns a bit of class, but things get messy up there, too. Nevertheless, it’s worth braving for the abso-bloody-lutely spectacular sunset views.
reviewed