Sydney's best beer gardens

For a country famed for it's great outdoors, the local took a long time to ditch the indoor English pub mentality and embrace the beer garden.

Until the late 1980s a good beer garden was hard to find. After blooming in the '90s, styled with recycled bricks and heavy outdoor benches which had a tendency to tip over, it sort of stayed there for a decade or two, when dark clubs and windowless bars took over again.

The beer garden took another turn for the worse when it was enclosed to accommodate pokies and smokers, forcing those who wanted to partake of a beverage outdoors to a tiny tiled courtyard.

Sarah Oldroyd and Rebecca Church enjoy a champagne at the Ivanhoe beer garden in Manly.

Well ladies and gentleman, and kids, the beer garden is back, this time with distressed furniture, craft beers on tap, good food, paper lanterns, bright umbrellas, luxurious lounges and no-smoking zones.

"The last decade has seen a total rethink in the way many hotels use their outdoor areas - from the rooftop bar to the more traditional beer garden it is just commonsense to make the best use of all available space.

"It offers more options to the customer and means hotels are making the best use of their common areas," said Australian Hotels Association NSW CEO Paul Nicolaou.

"NSW obviously has a very different climate to that of places like England or Ireland, patrons are able to enjoy a beer or a meal in outdoor areas virtually all year long.

"In line with the move towards gastro-hotels - with NSW pubs now producing more than 2 million meals a week - there has definitely been a push towards providing more facilities in outdoor areas."

Be it high-rise as a rooftop garden, an old storage space or smoke-pit replaced by a trendy courtyard or sandpit and playground equipment by the seaside, here are some of Sydney's best.

Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel — Beach Club 1 Military Rd.

BEACH AND BAY

Beach Club, Watson Bay Hotel, Watsons Bay

It's as iconic as any Aussie beer garden gets and publican Fraser Short reckons it's on par, if not better than famous Beach Hotel in Byron.

"Sydneysiders love getting outside, that's just a fact," said the award-winning publican. "We've got the weather for it, we are just suited to it. There are only about three months of the year where it is cold."

Apart from a ferry stop and nearby park and playground, in a $2m refit Short has restored beach access to "the Watto", improved seating and shade coverage for the 720 outdoor and outdoor spaces facing the Harbour.

"It's a pretty special outdoor space," Mr Short said. "You can come down and there is something for everyone. The feedback we are getting is overwhelming.

"I think the greatest thing is that the asset is back in the hands of Sydneysiders again where they can come and truly enjoy it."

Brooke Baldwin and Steph Kerr at the Newport Arms Hotel which has new lounges/seating area for its summer An Arvo on the Green event.

OTHERS
Newport Arms Hotel

The Bayfield family relish the attention this pub has garnered over the years. The focus is on family with an upgraded playground and sandpit separated from the space dedicated to those who like a schooner in peace and quiet.

Coogee Bay Hotel

It's not only Sydneysiders, among them a few footballers, who love this place. People from across the globe come to sit, watch the surf, have a beer and unwind, in Sydney's biggest beer garden.

Woolwich Pier Hotel

Enjoy the sheltered surrounds of the recently renovated courtyard space, called The Lawn, with its kid-resistant Astroturf or the loftier heights of The Terrace.

Owner Ray Reilly of the newly refurbished The Henson Hotel in Marrickville. 

COURTYARDS

The Henson, Marrickville

Ray Reilly said this old-fashioned pub had been "let go" over the years but he wanted to attract newcomers as well as retain regulars.

"It was one of the last of the last pubs in the inner-west that had the whole package," said Ray Reilly who also owns Trinity Bar in Surry Hills.

"We always were appealing to the immediate community, their families and the inner west as a whole."

New attractions include four new craft beer taps in the refurbished beer garden - but Reschs and VB in the front bar - and revamped kitchen and vertical herb garden for chef Megan McCulloch, who moved from trendy Reuben Hills cafe in Surry Hills.

People flock from around the world to take in the view at the Coogee Bay Hotel 

OTHERS

There is nothing quite like grilling your own steak under the huge Moreton Bay fig at the back of The Oaks in Mosman. Fortunately this feature remains after a redesign by Paul Kelly.

The Courthouse Hotel, Newtown is a Sydney Swans friendly pub that mixes outdoor deck with plenty of space downstairs with a large tree for summer shade.

Golden Sheaf, Double Bay is a pumping venue most weekends with the large outdoor area at rear of the hotel plus the terrace on level one.

At The Norfolk, Cleveland St, Surry Hills, they have just opened the House of Crabs restaurant upstairs, but there is also the pretty courtyard featuring a Sunday barbecue.

At The Beresford, Crown St, Surry Hills, you can see where some of the money went before the pub went bust before Justin Hemmes picked it up for a song. Outdoor movies a summer feature.

(LtR) Cindy Saleh, Cassy Butt, Kathy Stringfellow, Melanie Don, Chloe Butt (child) Olympia Loizou, Symore Sharp, Susan Zakhia enjoy a ladies lunch at The Mean Fiddler Hotel in Rouse Hill. 

Hemmes' Slip Inn, and its beloved CBD beer garden was transformed into Mexican cantina El Loco in March, and offers a beer garden with a twist of lime.

While the Warren View Hotel in Enmore occupies a busy corner, in the bamboo courtyard you can hardly hear the traffic. Planes are another thing.

The Rose Hotel, is a Chippendale institution with its bench seats, big wooden tables, open kitchen for pizza and pub grub and a bocce pitch.

Alexandria Hotel, is the suburb of the same name offers a huge outdoor beer garden, two cinema screens, outdoor bar and barbecue.

During the day the decks of The Mean Fiddler's beer garden in Rouse Hill are busy with mums with young families, office workers and tradies enjoying bargain lunches, much busier on weekends.

The Albion on the banks of the Parramatta River has had a pretty slick refit to turn the outdoor area into an enjoyable spot to have a meal or catch up with mates.

The new rooftop bar of the Ivanhoe Hotel, Manly.

ROOFTOPS

NEW: The Ivanhoe Hotel, Manly

This once second-rate pub has undergone a huge, multi-million-dollar restoration - in the vicinity of $6m - under the keen designer eye of designer Paul Kelly, who also revamped The Oaks, Mosman, and its much-loved courtyard.

While this local, owned and operated by the Peterson family since 1985, is in the heart of The Corso in Manly, the grand staircase leading up to the rooftop bars wouldn't look out of place in LA.

Overall it has 16 indoor and outdoor all-weather spaces over three floors, including the two impressive rooftop bars with surfclub themes and lobster pot decorations.

"A lot of hotels are becoming almost adult entertainment venues," said Mr Kelly. "People are coming for a drink, snack or meal, for cocktails or dessert, they are becoming multidimensional venues."

Tamara Cornell and James Bailey enjoy a meal on the new Rooftop Beer garden in the newly refurbished Bristol Arms Hotel. 

OTHERS
Darlinghurst Village, Darlinghurst

Once know as the East Village, the now renamed Darlinghurst Village, on that dip in Liverpool St, has new management who promise plans are afoot for a rooftop bar renovation.

Bristol Arms Hotel, Sussex St, CBDPaddy Coughlan and John Singleton's Riversdale Group have worked their magic on the Bristol Arms which includes a new rooftop bar with city skyline and water views.

Recent renovations to the outdoor area at the Macarthur Inn. 

GREATER OUTDOORS

Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown

The relatively new and smart looking Macarthur Tavern sits on a busy intersection and features two large outdoor eating areas, one smoking, one nonsmoking.

Camden Valley Inn

This place has been around since the horse and cart. Let the kids run around while you have a quiet beer and soak up the sun next to bucolic views.

Settlers Arms, St Albans

On the banks of Macdonald River, this former Cobb & Co. stop built in 1836, features Sunday pizzas cooked in an old bread oven.

 
Camden Valley Inn with band Blackwater for entertainment. Source: News Limited

Source: The Australian, 9 November 2013