Just Open: Busby Bar

Sydney's newest bar very nearly remained a secret, locked away behind a steel-framed door in the basement beneath Woolloomooloo's Riley St Garage. With music and entertainment businesses nearby, and a clutch of celebrity diners including Cate Blanchett and Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, Riley St Garage co-owner Liesel Petersen says the original plan was to keep Busby off the public radar as a bar and private dining retreat for regulars and celebs.

Luckily for Sydney's cocktail crowd, the Alexander & Co designed venue opens Friday and Saturday nights as a bar, its mix of industrial lighting and luxe leather a nod to its former life as a mechanics workspace in a building that once served as tycoon Frank Lowry's garage.

"The basement used to be our restaurant office and we've moved to a nearby building, actually into Gough Whitlam's old office," Petersen says. "Busby gets its name from the laneway behind Riley Street Garage." With an interior plush as a vintage Rolls-Royce, premium champagne, cocktails and reserve wine sit on a bar menu alongside fish and chips, cured meats and imported cheese.

55 Riley Street, Woolloomooloo, Bar opens Friday and Saturday night. Monday–Thursday private events