Maybe it's the squished-in comfort of a small space after the year that's been, or the faint sense of superiority that comes with knowing that you've scored one of only a handful of available standing spots – for whatever reason, tiny bars have captured Sydney's heart recently.
The latest small-statured venue to join this mix? A tiny Spritz bar setting up shop in the terrace of renowned booze den Bulletin Place in Sydney's CBD, known as Belsazar Place. The temporary, edgy sister venue to the award-winning Bulletin upstairs has a drinks list focussing on mixes, Negronis and seasonal Spritzes, all of which hero the bar's eponymous German vermouth. Its snacks and low-key atmosphere draw on Berlin's small-bar culture: you can munch on pretzels and onion dip, house-pickled caraway carrots, smoked curry almonds and more, while German electro tunes bring a little of Friedrichshain to the CBD. Belsazar Place is popping up as part of the World Class Cocktail Festival that's in Sydney between April 28 and May 2 – but this tiny bar will be sticking around for a good while longer (likely for much of 2021).
Plus, if you head down on Thursday to Saturday evenings between 5.30pm to 7.30pm for the next six weeks, you'll get a taste of live artists on show, as curated by local muso Michael Harvey. Settle in for performances by soul musicians like Esme and Mariam Sawires, pop songstresses Gemma Lyon and Jess Beck, and more until June 5.
Belsazar Place's live music line-up runs from April 28 to June 5, on Wednesdays to Saturdays from 5pm to late, but you can check out the pop-up bar for the next few months. Check it out at 10-14 Bulletin Place.