5 best new pubs in Sydney this year
Pubs come and go in Sydney almost as fast as you can knock back that pint. We've done the work on the watering holes and come up with a list of the best new or refurbished to hit the mark in the past year.
It's been a big year for new pub openings. Here are our favourites.
1. Hotel Centennial
This sprawling space has been transformed into a sanctuary of comfy leathers, heavy timbers, and beige and blue hues, where sharply dressed staff cut laps between the open kitchen, dining room, two bars and a communal high table.
The changing tide hasn't changed the sea of boat shoes and pearls, and everyone's still sipping champagne. There are eight beers on tap and nearly 20 by the bottle, a solid and accessible wine list and cocktail jugs just right for summer.
With chef Justin North behind the wheel, the food is bang on – citrus-cured tuna on a rice cracker is gone in three bites, and standout fried chicken is gone in three seconds.In the light, bright dining room, the menu runs from flatbreads and grilled fish to a whole suckling pig.
88 Oxford Street, Woollahra, 9362 3838
2. Keg and Brew
Earlier this year, the long-standing KB Hotel was taken over by the Dove & Olive crew and given the Midwestern leather-and-taxidermy treatment. It's still a pub with grunt, though, and it's managed to retain its old clientele: expect a happy harmony of hipster beards and had-it-since-1985 face fuzz.
Speaking of fuzz, those cow-hide bar panels may be a questionable choice, but 25 centimetres higher things get exciting: 33 different beers on tap, including three hand pumps, plus 30 bourbons and Tennessee whiskies. There's a strong focus on local craft beers and staff are happy to pour you a taste. From 5-7pm Monday to Saturday, get cheap craft beer during 'crafternoon' – no embroidery needles in sight.
The menu keeps the dude food wheels turning with buffalo wings and a pulled-pork po' boy as long as your forearm.
26 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills, 9212 1740
3. The Oxford Tavern
When the Drink 'n' Dine crew took over Petersham's premier strip club in December 2013, there were calls of anguish from the inner west faithful.
"Another piece of cultural fabric destroyed!"
"Stop hipsters taking over Sydney's pubs!".
Whether any of these pub pollies actually set foot in the old Tav is unknown (they probably didn't), but for the record it was a grim place, with no natural light, and it reeked of despair and spilt middies.
Now it's rocking. The food is stellar value (and there's American-style barbecue on the weekends), tinnies are $5, the pub-rock classics are cranked, and the staff - led by all-round-nice-guy Nathan Forbes - know how to party.
Winks and nudges to the pub's topless past are everywhere as is Foster's et al paraphernalia from a time when shorts were short and Delvene Delaney was every bloke's dream wife.
If it's strippers you want, Five Dock's Illinois hotel is a short Uber-ride away.
1 New Canterbury Road, Petersham, 8019 9351
4. Minsky's Hotel
Another "I-hope-nobody-I-know-sees-me-here" pub to be given an dollop of new paint and elbow grease last December. What was once the last-drinks-hotspot Hotel Cremorne is now Minsky's, named after the piano bar that resided above the pub for years. Redcape Hotel Group have dolled the joint up with bottle-green tiles, soft leather booths, and odd little buckets of fake herbs on each table (is real oregano too much of an ask? Then we could sprinkle some on our chicken and housemade labna salad).
The piano man is still around for locals wanting to make love to tonic and gin, but on the weekends only now the ivories are located at street level. Hats off to a late-night menu that lets you order a warm corned-beef sandwich until 1am.
287 Military Road, Cremorne, 9909 8888
5. Charing Cross Hotel
Woah-oh, there's been some money spent on this old corner pub. Lit-up letters of Hollywood-sign-proportions spell CHARO in the outdoor dining area, white marble is everywhere and a taxidermy peacock stands as sentry over the bar. It's a relief to see taxidermy in a pub that's not a bison head or deer with Bell's palsy.
Matt Kemp (ex Balzac, Montpellier Public House) is on the pans, and plates cut-above pub fare such as corned Rangers Valley wagyu with carrots, savoy spinach, kipflers and parsley. A $10 bar snack of spanner crab, cress, and peas is a nifty little number (we love a pub that pods its own peas).
There's a couple of vintage arcade machines in a room that looks to have once been a water closet. They cost $1 a go and if you can get your head around the scoring, you're doing better than anyone on the Good Food team.
81 Carrington Road, Waverley, 9389 3093
Callan Boys is editor of SMH Good Food Guide, restaurant critic for Good Weekend and Good Food writer.