With tables spread in the laneway and an intimate cocktail bar upstairs, Bar 1880 offers the best of both worlds in a storied site just a skip away from Circular Quay.
This is a storied site for Sydneysiders. For many years it was the location of lauded bar Bulletin Place, and since that legend’s closure in 2021, locals had been waiting for what would come next. Enter Bar 1880, opening in mid-2023. Drawing on the history of the site as the one-time offices of weekly magazine The Bulletin (from 1880 to 1897), the lights are low, photos are sepia-tinted and vintage press trays are mounted on the wall. But the offer is very much about the here and now: owner Harry Morton has nabbed two gun French bartenders who imbue their drinks with seasonality, originality and the occasional nod to forgotten classics reworked for today.
The biggest draw, though, is that Bar 1880 is a two-for-one. Stroll along Bulletin Place to the entrance and you’ll find the ground-level Headline Bar with tables spread out in the cobbled laneway where CBD workers ease into knock-off drinks. Head upstairs to The Press Room and things are more serious, with bar staff stirring down inventive cocktails late into the night.
Bar 1880 is about discovery. If you’ve never been, odds are you might pass through the laneway near Circular Quay, spy the groups at the outside tables and decide to join them. If you do, it’ll most likely be for a Bulletin Spritz, a fragrant twist on the classic where a base of Italy’s Aperol liqueur and a little strawberry liqueur is topped up with bubbles and rinsed with absinthe. Or perhaps a classic Daiquiri, made with aged El Dorado rum and tuned for refreshment.
As the sun sets and day turns to night, you might head up the stairs and pull up a stool or slide into a leather booth, share a platter of cured meats and see where Didier Nahum (late of the Hyatt Regency’s Zephyr bar) and Alex Raclet (a former bartender of the year in France) take you. Wherever that is, count on it being well considered, interesting and, most of all, delicious.
There’s a decent selection of beer and wine to get things going, but whether you’re upstairs or down, cocktails are where Bar 1880 excels. Stay downstairs, and it's about lighter, brighter concoctions. Yes, there’s a classic Daiquiri, but that doesn’t mean the team always veer to the predictable. Take the Suffering Bastard, for instance, an Egyptian drink originally designed as a hangover cure, which throws housemade cordial into a highball glass along with aged rum and dry gin, then tops it up with ginger beer.
Climb the stairs to The Press Room, and things are a little darker and moodier (even if the Palomino, combining Scotch and tequila, ginger-accented rhubarb and grapefruit soda bucks the trend). Here, the Lock Me Up is a must-order. Featuring banana-washed VS Cognac mixed with chestnut, fino sherry and vanilla bitters, the drink is nutty and a little fruit-forward, with spice, bitterness and a mellow profile. Don’t sleep on the Forgotten Cocktails section, either, where the Widow’s Kiss, a complex herbal mix of Calvados apple brandy and Bénédictine and Chartreuse liqueurs with just a hint of orange bitters is the pick.
