Punch Lane

This place has quite a history: it's been a brothel, a police station and an ASIO hangout but it's been Punch Lane for 17 years, long enough to cultivate an air of lived-in luxury. Low light gleams off mirrors, racks of wine bottles and the 100-year-old jarrah bar. Even when it's packed, the room emanates a gentlemanly ease. You can drink beer, aperitifs and just about any spirit you care to name but wine is really where it's at: served by staff who are always across the regularly changing lists of Old and New World labels. Settle into a red leather chair, order some oysters or a cheese and leek croquette, and feel part of history.