Barhop: the Newtown Hotel
At last, at last. Newtownians have been staring at the boarded-up facade of the Newtown Hotel for what feels like years. Despite a small cameo from a pop-up tiki bar, it had been dormant for far too long. Until now.
King Street, the legendary, gritty, hippie strip that drove McDonald's out of town, has welcomed another monolith with open arms, it seems. Sure, this one's much less greasy and globally pervasive but locals have been twittering nervously for months, wondering if Keystone Group, a huge hospitality company with a reputation for buying up bars and installing crowds of slick suits sipping expensive drinks, was going to open an investment banker hub in the wrong part of town.
Bloody brilliant ... the newly renovated Newtown Hotel. Photo: Sahlan Hayes
Keystone has tried its hardest to make this pub look all grungy and Newtowny. And I've tried my very hardest to write it off as a phoney.
But, in reality, it's bloody brilliant.
It's a great, social pub that suits Newtown beautifully. There's a gritty, Federation feel to the beautiful big balcony and long, wide bars, yet all the modern accoutrements are there: big chesterfield-style lounges, plenty of tables, open windows and a stellar beer garden out the back draped in coloured lights, crawling vines and a neon-lit bar.
Saturday nights are way too hectic for the time being (unless you like a DJ blasting techno and mini-skirted uni students spilling wine on you), but on a week night the wraparound balcony upstairs is one of the best new spots to drink in Sydney.
There's a decent selection on the taps (including a house sauv blanc and prosecco - strange, but good) and some gems to be found in the fridges like a great British organic Aspall cider ($16), Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale from Japan ($16) or Mythos and Vergina beers from Greece.
If you're not sitting down for dinner at the very cool Greek meat-lover restaurant, The Animal, upstairs, then you can order $18 meat skewers from the bar (FYI, the meat is a little tough but the grilled flatbread is divine) or other Greek-inspired pub grub, such as lamb burgers, home-made pork sausages and meatball subs.
Where it falls down is the vacant hipster/student staff that big hospitality companies tend to specialise in. At the bar in the beer garden, I wait 15 minutes for two cocktails selected from the shortlist of troppo drinks.
The stressed-out guy behind the bar forgot me, remembered me, forgot me again and then spent a few minutes looking at the laminated recipe card stuck up on the wall before getting to the job.
Forget the cocktails anyway because both were average. The tiki drink slushie machine was not working and the Mai Tai (Appleton V/X rum, cointreau, almond, sugar, $15) and Navy Grog (Pampero Seleccion rum, Appleton V/X, Bundaberg rum, grapefruit, lime, sugar, honey, $15) were watery, weak and served in a stingy tin mug.
A few remnants of the Newtown Hotel's proud gay and lesbian past remain. Legendary drag queen Mini Cooper properly launched the hotel on October 31 and on any night of the week there's an odds-and-sods crowd of rugby boofheads, off-duty trannies and scenesters.
I'm sure hardened members of the LGBTI community are crying into their schooners at the death of this hotel's once-proud gay identity, but them's the times.
There's still a great vibe that you only get from sucking all corners of Newtown into one room to mingle, clash, drink and constantly lament the death of a once-great suburb.
It's been worth the wait.
The Newtown Hotel
Address 174 King Street, Newtown, 9557 6399
Open Mon-Sat, 10am-midnight; Sun, 10am-10pm
You'll love it if … you're after something new to try in Newtown.
You'll hate it if … you're an old-school Newtown pub cynic.
Go for … Aspall cider, tiki drinks, The Animal restaurant.
It'll cost you … beers on tap, wine by the glass $6-$7.50, cocktails $12-$15, skewers $17-$19.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 November 2012
