Chef Neil Perry doesn’t have many hospitality firsts left to chalk up, but for all the countless venues he’s launched, the hospitality veteran has never opened a standalone bar. That will all change on Friday, August 30, when Bobbie’s serves its first Lychee Martini.

Its owners are clearly confident the Double Bay bar will go the distance, with everything from the lashings of marble and gold leaf to the hand-blown light fittings built to last. And nothing says permanent like a mural.

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Perry reveals his team has spent $13 million on the Bay Street development. The neighbouring upstairs restaurant, Song Bird, will also open on Friday, and $3 million of that budget has been devoted to Bobbie’s downstairs.

If there’s a reason it has taken Perry so long to get into the standalone bar game, it hasn’t been so much about finding the right partner as showing patience.

“I started working for Neil 25 years ago, as a 17-year-old,” says Bobbie’s co-owner, Linden Pride. The son of food writer Sheridan Rogers, Pride worked for Perry part-time through university as he found his calling behind the bar.

After implementing drinks programs at Perry start-ups across the country, Pride moved to New York, where he and his wife Nathalie bought Caffe Dante in 2015. Their recalibration was so successful that in 2019, Dante was dubbed best bar in the world at the Spirited Awards in New Orleans. The duo’s latest project is back home, at Bobbie’s.

“Linden has this incredible craft. A beautiful drink is perfectly balanced, like a beautiful dish with beautiful produce. It’s not about parasols and pineapple slices,” Perry says.

At Bobbie’s, the drinks menu sweeps from a New York Mini to a White Chocolate Espresso Martini. One of Perry’s favourite Dante memories is of drinking a Garibaldi cocktail: “Because it has OJ in it, you don’t feel guilty drinking it at 11.30am.”

Bobbie’s food is more snacky than substantial. “It’s not a restaurant,” says Perry. “We’ve got enough restaurants.” There’ll be oysters and gildas, but at this stage, a patty melt – a hamburger between bread rather than in a bun – is the only hot dish planned.

Bobbie’s takes its name from Pride’s grandfather, broadcaster and disc jockey Bob Rogers, who died earlier this year. Pride says the venue, which has a stage and an ambitious live performance program, is influenced by “the sense of hospitality” Bob and his wife, Jerry, created in their home.

Rogers didn’t live to see the bar’s opening, but Pride says they had time to discuss the concept and even review the interior colour palette. “I’m just grateful Jerry will be there for it.”

Open Wed 2.30pm-midnight, Thu-Sat 2.30pm-2am, Sun 2.30pm-10pm

24 Bay Street, Double Bay, themargaretfamily.com/venue/bobbies/