A swanky subterranean bar with mean eats, Charlie Parker’s is a sought-after hideaway with standout cocktails reflecting a garden-to-glass philosophy and top-notch people-watching to boot.
It’s easy to lose track of the many milestones in the rise and rise of Merivale’s hospitality empire. Some, such as the 2016 opening of Fred’s on Oxford Street in Paddington, have stuck out more than others. Up until that point, the picture-pretty suburb was considered a stronghold for heritage pubs, old-guard Italian restaurants and upmarket cafés. Then along came this shiny new toy – a restaurant styled like an idyllic Hamptons farmhouse, with an exquisite open kitchen and a hearth at its core, run by acclaimed American chef Danielle Alvarez. It revived not just the neighbourhood, but the city’s appetite for wholesome, unfussy farm-to-table fare. Yet that was only half the story.
Down a flight of stairs, beneath the dining room, something else was cooking. That something was Charlie Parker’s – a classy, 100-seat cocktail hideaway that echoed the upstairs kitchen’s ethos with its very own garden-to-glass philosophy. Sure, other bars were flirting with fermentation, vacuum distillation and foraging, but these folks took it a step further with a near-fanatical obsession with seasonality, plants and unusual ingredients. Case in point: a cocktail on the opening list called Centennial Park that married Lillet Blanc and distilled kikuyu grass, bottlebrush, jasmine and nasturtium from the nearby parklands. Much like the restaurant, Charlie Parker’s revitalised the area’s nightlife, and the city’s bar scene. And it keeps on keeping on.
This isn’t exactly a speakeasy in the “enter through a secret bookcase” sense of the word, but there is something very satisfyingly sly about slipping past the maître d’ at Fred’s and sliding down the stairs to make your entrance. Below ground, the lighting is just as low as the ceiling, and it may take your eyes a moment to adjust. Once they do, they’ll be met with an elegant basement rich with texture and detail: distressed bricks, old sandstone, dark timber beams, exposed pipes and vintage rugs.
It feels like a neighbourhood bar from days of yore dressed up for a big night out and livened up by engaging table service and jazz coming out of the speakers. You’ll be at ease from the get-go, which means your best-laid plans to pop in for “just a quick one” before or after dinner will likely go awry – and that’s okay. The glory of a place like this is that it’s just as good in a supporting role as it is being the main event. Pull up a pew and have at it.
