Bars in Pyrmont

Fridays evenings never looked so good before Bar Zini started offering their aperitivo between 5-7pm. Head in for a glass of wine or a Campari Spritz to shake off the work week and take advantage of the free buffet of pizza, pasta and salad on offer.

Where to go when you wanted to frock’n’suit up and take the town in a whirlwind of Snappers, Fizzes, Highballs and Old Fashioneds? Black Bar at the Star. The haircuts, the shirt stays, the dark opulence, has got the look of a 1920s hotel bar, only with booze on proud display.

When a suburb features the huge gravitational force of a sprawling multi-venue like a mall or a casino, you can sometimes forget about all the little guys down on the street level. But that would be your loss, because after-work drinks in Pyrmont just got a whole lot more chill thanks to the addition of a pirate bar on Pyrmont Bridge Road with a Spanish accent and a taste for seafood. Slide into one of the freshly lacquered timber booths by the open windows and watch the sun go down as you cool your heels with a Riders ‘Easy Rider' golden ale or a glass of the super approachable De Alto Amo tempranillo grenache from Spain. 

Many a sunrise has been viewed from the balcony of this 24-hour watering hole located just outside Sydney's CBD in the Darling Harbour precinct. Spread out over three levels, the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel has gaming facilities, pool tables, live music, a smokers area and top-shelf tequila.

The Quarrymans Hotel got a serious makeover and now boasts 24 craft beer taps and one handpump for real-ale enthusiasts. Those coppery valves are now supplying Pyrmont with anything from Ekim’s super-refreshing After Battle pale ale through to a strawberry wheat beer, a blueberry hefeweizen or an alcoholic ginger beer for people yet to acquire the taste for hops and barley. Inside, they’ve gone for an artisan workshop look with bare floorboards, a sandstone bar with a timber top, brown leather benches under the shabby-chic window frames and brass-pipe footrests under the bolted-down tables. On one wall is a neon sign declaring that ‘in hops we trust’ and with a double-hopped IPA in hand, so will you. 

Somewhere between a comic book, a zine and a cocktail list, the new menu here reads like a sweet little ode to drinking nice things. It’s probably one of the most approachable cocktail menus you’re likely to stumble across at the moment. That’s not to say the drinks lack subtlety, thought and sophistication. It’s just the list is really fun to read, written in an irreverent way that takes classic cocktails and gives them a cheeky smack on the bottom.