‘Sydney bar precinct to watch in 2023’: Bar 1880 and Caffe Q’s join wave of new drinking spots to hit Circular Quay

The city blocks between Circular Quay and Bridge Street have long teased as a destination for bar chasers, but a cluster of new and looming venues looks set to stamp the area as the Sydney bar precinct to watch in 2023.

Bar 1880 has opened in the same strip of warehouses on Bulletin Place where the late Len Evans schooled an earlier generation of Sydneysiders in the art of wine and food.

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While the area has experienced a boom and bust bar cycle over the past half century, Bar 1880 manager Alex Raclet – who managed the bars at Franca and Parlar, and trots outs cocktails with sous vide ingredients and names like Lock Me Up – believes Circular Quay has all the ingredients in place for success.

Raclet isn’t alone in tipping the area. The team from Re-, the Eveleigh bar previously named on The World’s 50 Best Bar list, will open a bar in the precinct in August, next to the Maurice Terzini-fronted Jacksons on George project.

A new French-leaning wine bar is tipped to open on the same strip as Sicilian cocktail bar Apollonia. And an application has been lodged for a liquor licence at a new venue opening at the bottom of Pitt Street.

Chef-restaurateur Joel Best will launch the whisky-featured Bar Besuto later this month, at Sydney Place.

Buoyed by the success of his Japanese restaurant Besuto, Best points to a massive influx of workers to Circular Quay courtesy of several tower developments: “Throw in the new Capella Hotel and the [upcoming] Waldorf Astoria and it’s transforming Circular Quay from an outdated area of the city to the new must-visit destination.”

The Phillip Street end of the Quay, better known for the Justice and Police Museum than bar action, recently added Bar Messenger to its ranks.

Quynh Nguyen, who has worked at Fred’s and Margaret locally and runs an international drinks consultancy, has joined the party at the eastern end, opening Caffe Q’s.

A cafe by day, Caffe Q’s will morph into an aperitivo bar from mid-June, tapping its owner’s considerable experience, with an incoming cocktail list including a creation Nguyen describes as tasting like “a rum and raisin Old Fashioned”.

Inspired by the small bars of Europe, Nguyen hopes the pint-sized Caffe Q’s will punch above its weight: “We pack a lot in 12 square metres. We want to create a community, somewhere you pop in for an early drink … we all go home at 10pm, let someone else look after the riff-raff.”

Bar 1880: Open Tue-Sat 4pm-late

10 Bulletin Place, Sydney

Caffe Q’s: Open Mon-Fri 7am-10pm

R2002/50 Bridge Street, Sydney