Northies - Cronulla Hotel

When the sun goes down on Cronulla’s star attraction, things start to ramp up at Northies. This sprawling, single-storey hotel tucked in underneath a shiny new apartment complex faces right out onto Cronulla Beach, ready to dole out the beers, built drinks and burgers as people migrate from the waterline to the nearest watering hole. All the major breweries are represented, but if you like craft beer or the more expensive imports you’ll have to settle for bottles. Sunday afternoon sessions used to be the main event but the bartenders tell us that lately Saturdays have been pulling the big crowds, valiantly assisted by the Martini open Friday and Saturday nights and the live bands on Wednesdays through Saturdays. It can be a shock going from the sunshine, surf and sand to the cool shade of the pub so to counter the dramatic shift in aesthetic Northies have created a surf-shack-meets-milk-bar diner called Old Joe’s off to one side of the hotel. It’s a lighter, brighter spot to hole up in, especially for an afternoon session. It’s got all the coastal markers: rough timber floorboards, a blue tiled feature wall, lobster traps on the roof, surfboards on the walls and Corona bunting. They have the same food menu as the rest of the hotel – burgers, pasta, pizza, schnitzel, salads and fish and chips – but it’s here that you can get a Byron Bay pale ale on tap, a Cuba Libre spider or a Joe-J-Fox milkshake with banana and chocolate liqueur, vodka, caramel sauce, Milo, banana and milk.