When a bar is blaring ‘Tiny Dancer’ it’s usually a bar worth investigating. When said bar is decked out like you’re in the hull of a schooner, you ask the friendly chap on the floor to find you a table. And when they pop a bowl of monkey nuts down in front of you while you peruse the menu, that’s when you’ll decide that this Button Bar is a good place to be.
The little nautical cabin on Foveaux Street is the preferred port for the after-work crowd in and around Surry Hills. From 5pm they have to do some nifty rearranging to squash everyone in around the big central table, up at the bar or around the big wooden barrels that serve as the perfect two-person perch. Those big, comfy-looking booths are often reserved in advance by bigger groups. You can order up at the bar but when things are busy it’s much easier to set up a tab and let the nimble table runner do his thing. If you like your drinks rich, creamy and sweet the Monty Burns is for you (it’s not the only Simpson’s reference on the menu, there’s also a Boo-Urns that mixes vodka, lemon juice, ginger, apple juice, honey, shrub and sugar syrup). We expect dark rum, Campari, Punt e Mes and Amaro Montenegro to be a bitter reviver but instead the rum dominates and the foam tastes a little like meringue.
You’re on easy streets if your night involves swaying along to ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ with a bacony smoked porter from Feral in one hand and the promise of a $14 Margherita pizza for when you’re ready to upgrade from peanuts. The timber ceiling, frosted glass lamps, candlelight and propensity for gin and rum all scream ‘we’re hitting the high seas’ but conveniently this little ship is docked in Surry Hills so landlubbers can get a stiff drink on dry land.
