Della Hyde

Like any young adult who cries alone in the bath to Belle and Sebastian records, I enjoy the films of Wes Anderson a lot (particularly The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited, though less so The Life Aquatic). So when a mate at the pub told me I should check out a new bar on Oxford Street inspired by Wes Anderson and featuring a Neil Young soundtrack and excellent sandwich game to boot, it was an Uber to Darlinghurst immediately.

Della Hyde is the fifth venue brought to you by Ben Carroll and Hamish Watts, co-owners of Applejack Hospitality (see also The Butler, SoCal, The Botanist and Bondi Hardware). It's in the basement once occupied by Phoenix and the space is now a clean, soft-lit, pastel-pink bar you could take your grandmother to, as opposed to the sweaty sex lair of random bags and pashing it once was.

This is not a Wes Anderson-themed bar like Bar Luce in Milan, with vintage formica tables and Steve Zissou pinball. Rather, Della Hyde has been designed to echo the gimlet-and-a-good-time vibe of yesteryear hotel lobby bars.

This means Anderson elements such as kitsch patterned carpet, a florist's worth of handsome flowers and, the piece de resistance, an almost-replica key board (not the music kind) from The Grand Budapest Hotel. It's a gorgeous bit of gear, although I fear Budapest concierge M. Gustave would have a dreadful fright if he saw the clash of orange and aqua on the key chain tassels, darling.

My mate didn't exaggerate about the excellent sandwich game, even if there is only one sanger on the menu. It's a highly smashable sub of smoked meat, pickles, mustard and watercress ($18). Cut into four slices and made with 18-hour smoked beef shipped over from SoCal, it's the kind of no-fuss booze food you can eat with one hand while the other nurses a Punk IPA ($12) from Scottish beer barons, BrewDog. Pork short ribs ($20) with healthy lashings of muhammara take two hands instead of one (such effort!) but no matter as the meat is submissive and the Levantine red pepper sauce delicious.

The cocktails created by Della Hyde's general manager, Joe Worthington, and Applejack's bars manager, Lachy Sturrock, are predominantly floral and fruit-driven. Five are on a hyper-seasonal fortnightly rotation and it will be a shame to see the Rumbo No. 5 ($18) disappear – white rum, creme de menthe, fresh pineapple juice, coconut, falernum, lime and Tiki bitters. Shaken into a long glass, it's like an ultra-chilled cousin of the zombie.

A cold-drip negroni ($18) is the go-to of the four mainstay cocktails and I can't comment on what the bar's sazerac ($19) skills are like because there was no Peychaud's Bitters on hand (!) when I visited.

And of the promised Neil Young soundtrack? It exists (albeit in Buffalo Springfield form), although don't expect too much '60s alt-country after dark on a weekend when the place packs out and DJs dictate the dance tunes.

While Della Hyde might not be the fully realised bar nirvana I was hoping for, it's still a damn good place run by blokes keen on creating a joint with its own identity, unlike anything else in Sydney. There's a lot to like and a couple of things to love, so go there, grab a cocktail, and enjoy one of freshest venues in the city.

THE LOWDOWN
Go for… the most Wes Anderson-esque bar in Sydney after the CTA Club.
Stay for… a sandwich Steve Zissou could get behind.
Drink… the Rumbo No. 5
And… if a cocktail garnish needs to be pegged to the glass, it probably shouldn't be there in the first place.