Sarino’s Bella Vista, Mr Watkin’s Bar Penrith, Amaro’s Dural among Sydney’s best bars
From rooftop bars and glamorous haunts to casual watering holes, there’s a smorgasbord of venues to sip on bitters or enjoy champagne in western Sydney.
Parramatta
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A swanky new style of entertaining is taking over western Sydney with those in the know heading out for a more sophisticated night on the town.
Forget going to the big noisy boozehouses and RSL clubs, a night out at an elegant up-market bar is now the evening of choice — and the more tucked away out of sight the better.
From sipping bitters surrounded by ornate gilded mirrors and luxe bar in Bella Vista or enjoying a glass of champagne while lounging in a “sexy industrial” backdrop in Dural, the western suburbs have some of the best haunts in Sydney.
SARINO’S, BELLA VISTA
Don’t be fooled by the generic office block exterior of Mullane’s Hotel. Ascend the stairs to Sarino’s and your jaw drops as it morphs into an uber-glamorous venue dripping with a labyrinth of private function rooms, a cellar, an up-market Italian restaurant and a luxe bar where negroni worshipper Jacob Wicks pours the best bitters this side of Italy.
It’s possibly the swankiest production from the Colosimo family (a prolific clan in the Hills district) who has thrown attention to detail into every inch of the Bella Vista haunt, from the gilded mirrors and fireplace in the largest function space to a cosy room hidden behind a bookcase.
Apart from being an interior designer’s dream with its “million textures and patterns,’’ the 340-seat venue, which has two levels atop Mullane’s bar, overflows with 18 signature cocktails, 150 classics, 200 wines more than 100 featured spirits, liqueurs, aperitifs and 24 of the “world’s most beautiful whiskies’’.
Those with a penchant for the Italian bitter negroni have come to the right place, courtesy of former engineering and graphic designer student Wicks, whose arrosto (Sunday roast negroni) was selected in the 2020 bible dedicated to the drink, The Negroni Cocktail Book, released in the annual Negroni Week.
“Being an Italian venue, you can’t go past negroni,’’ Wicks, 25, says.
“It’s like the quintessential Italian cocktail. It’s kind of bitter, kind of sweet, it’s just refreshing and delicious and you never get sick of it.’’
A traditional negroni contains Campari, sweet vermouth and gin but Wicks’ twist fuses melted butter with the gin, before mixing it with Campari, vermouth and smoked rosemary to evoke the flavours of a Sunday roast.
The arrosto is one of Sarino’s bestsellers and on its busiest nights, “a hefty amount’’ of negroni is prepared for easier decanting, while the bar is buzzing with jazz performances on Thursday nights.
“When it’s going, this sultry, hardcore sexual Marvin Gaye music’s going it’s mad as hell,’’ Wicks says.
“It’s very much an inner city escapism bar in the suburbs.’’
Richard Kemp, who ran 11-hatted restaurant Eschalot in the Southern Highlands for 15 years, adds to Sarino’s clout along with head chef Alex Keene, whose menu highlights include the ravioli with buffalo ricotta, buffalo mozzarella, parmigiana-reggiano, burnt sage butter and roasted pistachio.
Fabulous.
Sarino’s, Level 1/36 Brookhollow Ave, Bella Vista
AMARO RESTAURANT AND BAR, Dural
Amaro translates to bitter in Italian but it has been a sweet drop for patrons in the Hills district who have been flocking to the classy restaurant and bar for a tipple in a “sexy industrial’’ setting since October.
Alexander Pagano’s family has been part of the local hospitality scene for more than a decade and he saw the opportunity to create a boutique wine bar in the unlikely setting of the New Line Business Park at Dural where “ridiculously cheap rent’’ allowed him and former carpenter Joseph Cosentino to fit out the 65-seat venue with plush decor and a copious wine list offering 200 varieties, 40 cocktails and 15 amaros.
“The reasoning behind Amaro was to try and create a point of difference for this particular area,’’ Pagano says.
“We’ve been in hospitality within the Hills district for the past 12 or so years and there’s never really been a wine bar that’s provided the consumer out in the Hills district with the ability to come and try wines alongside food that has that sort of inner city vibe.’’
Pagano says locals love forgoing the hefty Uber fares that comes with a night in the city and instead indulging in “’60s to ’70s-type socialising — no phones, or where you don’t actually have to go to an RSL or the local pub to have a couple of drinks and socialise with people you don’t really wish to”.
“This way you can catch up, sit down face-to-face, enjoy a nice wine, enjoy nice food, enjoy nice company. In the Hills district everyone just wants good service, good food and a personal touch, as such.’’
Wine aficionados will find their natural habitat at Amaro, where 60 per cent of varieties are imported from Italy (a country Pagano says boasts 2500 varieties) and the remainder are local, including a $600 bottle from the Barossa.
Once bar manager Filippo Patrizi whips up a fancy bevvy, accompany it with a meal prepared by head chef Gianluca Mastrosimone’s team.
The antipasto options are generous and we can vouch for the ricotta and pecorino-stuffed zucchini flowers. The duck fat potatoes confit with garlic and rosemary butter; Italian sausage, mixed mushroom, truffle oil fettuccine and prawns, chilli, garlic and smoked prawn butter linguine are drool worthy options to keep you lingering longer in this fine establishment.
Amaro Restaurant and Bar, Building 2/256 New Line Rd, Dural
ALLAN GRAMMAR, Penrith
Many Penrith chefs believe if Allan Grammar was in Surry Hills it would have become a hatted venue.
Mulgoa-raised trailblazer Sophia Bernecki opened the venue, tucked away in an arcade off Penrith’s main street, in 2018, with a desire to serve the kind of cocktails and dishes that normally demanded a long trip into the city to enjoy.
Many locals are still discovering the gorgeous bar at the foot of the mountains, fitted out with emerald suede booths and parquetry floorboards.
“I think for us we wanted to create a space where we could come and have a wine before dinner or after dinner,’’ Bernecki says.
“The space is very polished but I like to think it’s relaxed.’’
Dylan Sweep will pour you one of 80 local and international wines including the De Beaurepaire range and a cocktail menu that has recently been bolstered to 21 delights including the amaretto sour, Bee’s Knees (gin, honey and lemon) and London Calling (gin, sugar, lemon, fino sherry and orange bitters).
The gin, whisky, liqueur, vermouth, tequila, rum options are more than extensive while the bar snacks are too good to ignore.
Arancini stuffed with pecorino and wild mushroom, lobster rolls with herbs and aioli, burrata with semi-dried tomatoes and green oil and kingfish with watermelon radish and pomelo are ready to be devoured.
Allan Grammar, 14-16 Woodriff St, Penrith
SKYE BAR, Burwood
Perched on the 11th floor of the Crowne Plaza Burwood, the funky Skye Bar is brimming with cocktails, lavish food, cigars and 360-degree views from the Blue Mountains to the Harbour Bridge.
“I think out of anywhere in the world, Sydney has such an amazing skyline, particularly with the city and the lights, and we do a lot with fireworks, and I think a rooftop bar with this atmosphere is the way to go,’’ the hotel’s food and beverage manager James Heggie says.
“I think rooftop bars have already got a strong presence in Sydney and it’s where I want to go every night, and we have hundreds of guests who would agree.’’
Patrons include locals who file through for after-work drinks followed by the party crowd doing rounds of shots and feasting on “a really fun mix’’ of cocktails and party platters prepared by InterContinental Hotels Group executive chef Clinton Jackson.
Beverages such as the Banana Cream Pie (Bailey’s Irish Cream, Patron XO Cafe, banana liqueur and cream) and Skye Signature (gin, lime and passionfruit) add even more flavour to the cheese croquettes, tomato burrata, Sydney rock oysters and sliders.
“The idea behind our menu is you can eat with one hand so you can have a drink in the other,’’ Heggie says.
That other hand can also hold one of eight cigars, from the smaller vanilla pipe to the Winston Churchill style “that almost needs two hands’’ to smoke.
When restrictions lift, the swimming pool for patrons with a spritz bar, DJs and Indie bands to get the 250-seat venue pumping even more.
Heggie’s previous stint in the Whitsundays might be thousands of kilometres from urban Burwood but it’s still a place where escapism reigns.
Skye Bar, Level 11/60 Burwood Rd, Burwood
NICK AND NORA’S, Parramatta
If you want to witness Parramatta’s rapid growth, take in the view from the 26th floor of the V by Crown building and sip a bevvy at Nick and Nora’s.
The rooftop bar is the ideal place to enjoy a cocktail or champagne while watching the $3.2 billion Parramatta Square redevelopment dwarf landmarks such as the Town Hall and St John’s Anglican Cathedral in the historic suburb.
The Melon Trap is one of the bar’s most popular cocktails courtesy of its watermelon, gin, tequila, lime, orange, hibiscus and basil but if you desire a more bitter tang, opt for the Nick and Nora Spritz (vodka, bitter grapefruit liqueur, dry vermouth, soda and bubbles).
Champagne fans will need to allocate plenty of time to ponder the generous options available in the cool setting.
Don’t limit the hedonistic experience to the drinks. Splash out on oysters, caviar, escargot or charcuterie boards, including a duck and prosciutto platter.
If you want to transfer the bar experience to your kitchen, Nick and Nora’s also offers masterclasses on whiskies, martinis and cocktails, with the latter open to groups with six to 25 members who learn how to make three cocktails from a broad list of classics for $75 per each.
Nick and Nora’s, Level 26, 45 Macquarie St, Parramatta
Mr WATKIN’S BAR, Penrith
It’s going to become even easier to go bar hopping along Penrith, thanks to the team behind Mr Watkin’s.
It’s a testament to their success three mere years after opening the suburb’s first dedicated cocktail bar that Wayne Jenkins, Rod Parbery and Nick Fiafakas are expanding their bevvy portfolio with another bar on High St in March.
Elton Chong will be a slightly more casual bar but bound to emulate the success of cafe-by- day, bar-at-night Mr Watkin’s that opened in December 2017.
Named after First Fleeter and author Captain Watkin Tench — a Brit who wrote about his journey to Australia — the venue’s cafe fronts the street before a passage leads to a popular bar.
“It’s like the hole in the wall you would see in Newtown and Melbourne,’’ venue manager Elizabeth Beugelsdyk says.
“You go in and the atmosphere’s fantastic set in the explorer’s day; it’s almost like you’re not in Penrith.
“Somewhere else you would go in for a drink, for a catch-up, be loud but you go into Mr Watkin’s and you have some food, you have a cocktail, the lights are dimmed and the atmosphere’s eclectic. It’s very chilled.’’
It’s quite the surprise for out-of-towners who think quirky venues only belong in Surry Hills. After living and working in the UK for five years, Beugelsdyk was shocked how her old stomping ground now had a bar scene with a bar furnished by Juicy Design to adopt a colonial theme like the library of Captain Tench.
As drinkers sink into chesterfield couches, most favour cocktails including the signature blue
Drunken Botanist, a floral fusion of Bacardi, elderflower liqueur, lime juice and crème de violet and lime juice, and the tangy Gin Drop, which comprises gin, limoncello and lemon juice.
Tuck into the banquets to complement the tipples and feast on marinated olives, polenta nuggets, lemon and thyme chicken, potatoes, paprika-smoked greens, lemon meringue cheesecake and banoffee sundae.
Mr Watkin’s Bar, 467 High St, Penrith
THE PICKLED BEAR, Bella Vista
One moment Haydn Graham is driving to a doctor’s appointment, the next he is signing a lease for a bar at a Bella Vista business park.
“I was getting a skin check and I saw a small bar for lease and put the handbrake on,’’ he recalled. “I rang the real estate agent when I was at the doctor’s, made an appointment and signed a lease then.’’
Graham had four years of experience running a business under his belt after he co-founded BlackBear BBQ at Blacktown with pitmasters including Scott McCoy, and the business has boomed with Sydney’s meat lovers who are now discovering the Pickled Bear.
Graham loved the idea of a whisky dive bar and in August, with the expertise of Mark Bylsma, opened the Pickled Bear, which has former Fiddler Rouse Hill crew Morgan Tull and Melanie Estasy mixing 15 cocktails.
“I just wanted to create a place with no pokies, where people can sit down and have a chat,’’ Graham said.
“It’s friendly service, it’s more personal and we don’t have 1000 security guards standing over everyone. I understand why you need security guards but when you have a mature crowd like you have here it’s too much.’’
A builder by trade, he fitted out the 45-seated bar with two comfy booths and adorned it with retro artwork and signage with font famous from the movie Cocktail.
Behind the bar, Tull gets creative with concoctions such as the its potent Bushwhacked cocktail (BlackBear’s Moonshine, Cointreau, coconut tequila, lime, pineapple, cranberry juices, orange bitters, raspberry cordial and a sprig of rosemary), while the lychee cosmo is its bestseller. “I’m close to 1000 of them since we opened,’’ Tull says, noting he was used to mixing 500 or 600 beverages at his old watering hole on a busy Saturday night.
“For me, it’s the creativity,’’ he says before rattling off facts showing how well versed he is on the history of cocktails.
Accompanying our drinks are pork sliders, the South American rump picanha, which are smoked at BlackBear to give it the signature ironbark-fused flavour, and pickled veggies such as brussels sprouts and carrots.
McCoy, who was a salesman before taking over the barbie in 2016, is forthright when he explains BlackBear and Pickled Bear’s success.
“We haven’t got that hospitality arrogance and we try to relate to our customers and we have a big social following,’’ he says.
The Pickled Bear, A7/24 Lexington Drive, Bella Vista
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