Entertainment in Sydney
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Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel
Built in 1841, this boutique sandstone pub has its own brewery (try a pint of Nelson’s Blood), and is just far enough from The Rocks’ tourist throng. Rooms are elegantly colonial, with stripy sheets, stone walls and dormer windows – the owners have resisted the urge to spew flowers and lace all over the place. Most of the nine rooms are spacious and have en suites; there are also cheaper, smaller rooms with shared facilities.
reviewed
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Orbit
Shoot up to this murderously cool revolving Goldfinger-esque bar, offering killer cocktails and views to die for. Sink into an Eero Saarinen tulip chair and sip a kung fu mojito while all of Sydney is paraded before you.
reviewed
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Palms on Oxford
No one admits to coming here, but the lengthy queues prove them liars. In this underground dance bar, the heyday of Stock Aitken Waterman never ended. It may be uncool, but if you don’t scream when Kylie hits the turntables you’ll be the only one.
reviewed
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Venue 505
Focusing on jazz, roots, reggae, funk, gypsy and Latin music, this small, relaxed venue is artist-run and thoughtfully programmed. The space features comfortable couches and murals by a local artist.
reviewed
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Taxi Club
Chances are if you can't remember the end of last night, you probably finished it off at the Taxi Club. Refreshingly seedy after all these years, this place is a national treasure that no tourist brochure's going to tout, but that no tourist's visit should be without. Mind the stairs, which are breakneck-steep, even when you're sober.
Bring ID, because you'll have to present it at the door - this is a club of sorts, but all are welcome. Head on upstairs to the small but casual and comfy areas (which have too many pokies for our taste). At least happy hour sees cheap beer and spirits, and there's bingo on Monday nights. Taxi Club is popular with cross-dressers and gets…
reviewed
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Marble Bar
Built for a staggering £32,000 in 1893 as part of the Adams Hotel on Pitt St, this incredibly ornate underground bar is one of the best places in town for putting on the ritz (even if this is the Hilton). When the Adams was demolished in 1968, every marble slab, wood carving and bronze capital was dismantled, restored, then reassembled here.
Musos play anything from jazz to funk from Wednesday to Saturday.
reviewed
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Stonewall Hotel
Nicknamed ‘Stonehenge’ by those who think it’s archaic, Stonewall has three levels of bars and dance floors, attracting a younger crowd. Hosted by drag queens such as Penny Tration and Tora Hymen, cabaret, karaoke and games nights spice things up – Wednesday’s Malebox is an inventive way to bag yourself a boy.
reviewed
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Beresford Hotel
The small old Albion Hotel (1870) has reopened as the huge new Beresford – a superslick architectural tractor beam designed to lure the beautiful people. And it works! The crowd will make you feel either inadequate or right at home, depending on how the mirror is treating you. The bouncers have rapidly gained a rep for being the most arrogant and patronising in Sydney – forget about it if you’re anyone less than Jennifer Hawkins. Red-hot DJ action after dark.
reviewed
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Exchange Hotel
There’s a whole mess of venues here, mashed together under one roof. Q Bar pumps hot house seven nights a week; Spectrum is an alt-indie club with live bands; and sticky, sexy, claustrophobic Phoenix is home to alternative gay clubbers. Sandwiched in between, the Exchange is a regulation beery pub. Down and dirty: if you don’t come out drenched in sweat, you’re not doing it right.
reviewed
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Ivy
Hidden down a laneway off George St, the Ivy is a supersexy complex featuring bars, restaurants, discreet lounges…even a swimming pool. It's also Sydney's most hyped venue; expect lengthy queues of suburban kids teetering on infeasibly high heels, waiting to shed $20 for the privilege of entry on a Saturday night.
reviewed
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Tilbury
Once the dank domain of burly sailors and salty ne’er-do-wells, the Tilbury now sparkles on Sydney’s social scene. Yuppies, yachties, suits, gays and straights alike populate the light, bright interiors. The bistro, bar and beer garden are packed on weekends (especially on Sunday afternoon); DJs play soul, funk and rare-groove Thursday to Sunday. And sailors can still get a beer!
reviewed
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Slip Inn & Chinese Laundry
Slip in to this warren of moody rooms on the edge of Darling Harbour and bump hips with the kids. There are bars, pool tables, a beer garden, dance floors, pizza and Thai. On Friday nights the bass cranks up at the attached Chinese Laundry nightclub; on Saturdays there's a roster of international and local electro, house and techno DJs.
reviewed
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Favela
This place may actually be too flashy even for Sydney. A nondescript entrance leads into a designer’s dream bar populated by dolled-up young ’uns. If you want to splash your roubles, $500 will get you and your four most impressionable friends a Gold Room table (gold-tiled ceiling and walls) with $200 worth of drinks. In the upstairs club, the ceiling’s 8000 golden light globes throb in time to the house beat.
reviewed
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Midnight Shift
The grand dame of the Oxford St gay scene, the Shift boasts two quite distinct venues. Downstairs the video bar attracts an unpretentious mix of blokes, twinks and bears, and has a musical mandate ranging from Top 40 to camp classics. Upstairs is a serious tits-to-the-wind club (open from 10pm Fridays and Saturdays), with grinding beats (and teeth) and lavish drag productions.
reviewed
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Argyle
This mammoth conglomeration of five bars is spread through the historic sandstone Argyle Stores buildings, with everything from a cobblestone courtyard to underground cellars resonating with DJs. The decor ranges from rococo couches to white extruded plastic tables, all offset with kooky chandeliers and moody lighting. Great bar food, too.
reviewed
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Aperitif
Like a gently sloping mini–Bourbon St, Kellett St is a snaky, sexy laneway with as many bars as brothels. In no position to deny such debauchery, intimate Aperitif elevates the tone just far enough to make you feel comfortable in the thick of it. Behind a twisted arbour of branches you’ll find a superb wine list, vintage toreador posters, clued-up staff and gourmet tapas (small/large plates $15/25).
reviewed
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Greenwood Hotel
The transformation of this slate-roofed sandstone schoolhouse (1878) into a pumping bar has left it largely unchanged. In fact, apart from the Friday night after-work brigade, school is a not-too-distant memory for most of the punters. On Thursdays acoustic musicians strum and DJs spin until 3am; on Friday evenings the decks shift to the courtyard for a laid-back wind down.
reviewed
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World Bar
World Bar (a reformed bordello) is an unpretentious grungy club with three floors to lure the backpackers and cheap drinks to loosen things up. DJs play indie, hip hop, power pop and house nightly. Propaganda (indie classics, new and used) on Thursday is a sure-fire head start to your weekend. Live bands on Friday.
reviewed
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Gazebo Wine Garden
A hip wine bar in skanky old Fitzroy Gardens? Who would have believed it 10 years ago? This place has groovy decor (wrought-iron gates, bespoke benches, eclectic couches) and a hi-tech vino storage system that shoots gas into open bottles (meaning that 55 sometimes-obscure wines are available by the glass to join the 300 by the bottle).
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Beauchamp Hotel
The design lords have transformed this old corner pub into something very hip indeed. On weekends it gets packed – and incredibly noisy – with stylish Eastern Suburbs 20-somethings. There’s a cool terrace upstairs and the Velvet cocktail lounge in the basement. It’s pronounced Beech-um.
reviewed
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Bambini Wine Room
Don’t worry, this bar doesn’t sell wine to bambinis – it’s a very grown-up, European affair. The tiny dark-wood-panelled room is the sort of place where you’d expect to see Oscar Wilde holding court in the corner. It has an extensive wine list, slick table service, free almonds and breadsticks, and disembodied postmodern cornices dangling from above.
reviewed
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Home
Welcome to the pleasuredome: a three-level, 2100-capacity timber and glass ‘prow’ that’s home to a dance floor, countless bars, outdoor balconies, and sonics that make other clubs sound like transistor radios. Catch top-name international DJs, plus live bands amping it up at Tokio Hotel downstairs from Tuesday to Saturday.
reviewed
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Bank Hotel
There's been bags of cash splashed about the Bank, but it still attracts a kooky mix of lesbians (especially for Lady L on Wednesdays), students, sports fans, gay guys and just about everyone else – they just don’t wear their ugh boots to the pub anymore. The portfolio includes a rooftop terrace, cocktail bar, Thai restaurant and DJs.
reviewed
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Harbour View Hotel
Built in the 1920s, the curvilicious Harbour View was the main boozer for the Harbour Bridge construction crew. These days it fulfils the same duties for the BridgeClimbers – wave to them from the 2nd-floor balcony as they traverse the lofty girders. The Tooth’s KB Lager listed on the tiles out the front is long gone, but there’s plenty of Heineken and Boag’s on tap.
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Oxford Hotel
Over the course of 30 years and numerous facelifts the main bar at the Oxford has remained the locus of beer-swilling gay blokedom. On weekends the Bar Underground basement miniclub spins pop and indie. Upstairs, the Supper Club and Polo Lounge play host to an eclectic program of cabaret, DJs and private functions.
reviewed