With a convict-cum-chic menu, craft beers and views of the coat hanger, one of Sydney’s oldest pubs has reopened with a vengeance. Overlooking Barangaroo, it still has a certain quietness, with a whiff of potential; and with plans to open a penthouse bar upstairs, the owners are surely banking on this.
Although they might not have the weather for it, the British sure do know how to make a decent fish’n’chips. Sure, it’s not exactly ‘catch of the day’ and the menu reads like a DIY heart attack, but it’s a damn good feed.
Poet Banjo Patterson described the 19th century larrikin Rocks Push gang as ‘wiry, hard-faced little fellows’. Jump a hundred years and The Push was still rebellious but with a left wing group who met over a meal and a beer.
Thirty minutes and thirty years from Sydney is a pub where strangers talk to one another, and Bar Manager John Mundy uses common sense and conversation to enforce the rule of law. Over a malty pint of Old Speckled Hen ($11.50) you might enquire after his glass jar of Pickled Eggs ($1.10/each).