More than a decade since opening, The Roosevelt’s glitzy ’50s character and cocktails made with an air of theatre ensure it remains one of the city’s finest places to bend the elbow.
The Roosevelt has been going strong in Potts Point for 10 years now, and shows no signs of slowing with age. A follow-up to Eau-de-Vie, one of Sydney’s most influential cocktail bars throughout the 2010s, The Roosevelt launched at a time when hipster culture and the city’s thirst for venues throwing back to golden eras of drinking culture – in this case the bars and jazz clubs of the ’50s – was reaching a peak. When the doors opened, they did so while Mad Men was gracing screens, bartenders came with suspenders and waxed moustaches, and liquid nitrogen, flames and cocktails billowing smoke were becoming an increasingly common part of a night out. A decade on, The Roosevelt may no longer be right at the forefront of Sydney’s bar culture, but it has admirably remained true to its roots.
And why wouldn’t it? New York circa the 1950s is as good a theme as any, setting a tone of, in The Roosevelt’s words, “an era when drinking was taken seriously”. Here, long lunches are chased with Martinis, and whiskies are poured long into the evening. To go with it, the food veers classic; oysters with Champagne dressing segueing to dishes that range from sirloin steak with whisky mustard to oozy baked Camembert. A night out that starts and ends here is a night well spent.
