One of Sydney’s coolest suburbs, Marrickville, has scored a new local – the old Ritz pub on Illawarra Road has been rebranded as The Montague Hotel (or The Monty), and it now has a upstairs’ li’l sis called Harriet’s, which is a more refined type of space than Marrickville is used to (I can say that because I live here).
Harriet's is part fancy dining room, part cocktail lounge, part late-night dance floor – with cosy booth seating, marble tabletops and velvet textures. You could say it fills a gap in this edgy suburb – Marrickville now has an elegant space for long lunching, apertivo hours and late-night dancing.
This two-storey, all-in-one hangout is from the folks at Public House Management Group (PHMG), who, among other pubs, run The Royal Hotel in Paddington, The Toxteth in Glebe and Minskys in Cremorne.
On street level, The Montague is standard local pub vibes, with weekly $20 dinner specials: Monday is steak frites and free pool; Tuesday night is parmis plus a pool comp; and Wednesday night you can get a sandwich and chips for a twenty (burger, steak sambo, club sandwich, etc). That said, they also offer some elevated dishes like charred prawns with chilli butter; tuna tartare with soy, yuzu and flatbread; and a chargrilled pork chop with caper butter, jus and smashed potato salad.
There are also weekly specials upstairs at Harriet’s – my fave is two cocktails for just $20 on Saturdays from 8-11pm (wild), with choices including an Aperol Spritz, Campari Spritz or Margarita. On Thursdays, they serve up $7 skewers, so you can snack on smoky, spicy, sticky bites of pork jowl chilli crackle, wagyu with pineapple, satay chicken or octopus with potato and ’nduja.
Harriet’s is open Thursday through Sunday, and during the day it’s all about long lunches – their brunch menu features crab benedict and fig and ricotta hotcakes, and they have an $85 bottomless brunch on Fridays and Saturdays. When it turns dark, the space flips into BAD Harriet’s – a disco-ball-lit, late-night dance floor with DJs (open until 2am).
Marrickville people, you might have walked past this place plenty of times when it was The Ritz, but we reckon you should poke your head in – and wander up the stairs – to meet your new neighbour.
The Montague Hotel is at 252-254 Illawarra Rd, Marrickville (with Harriet’s upstairs).
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