April 2023 update: Four floors above the hustle and bustle of Oxford St and Jersey Rd is where you’ll find Woollahra watering hole, the Light Brigade Rooftop. A favourite haunt for Eastern Suburbs locals for decades, the pub is also a rite of passage for Swans fans before and after games at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The rooftop bar’s panoramic city views are reason enough to visit, but the fourth floor’s recent refurbishment seals the deal. With playful cocktails, big beach umbrellas and pastel furnishings, the Light Brigade rooftop transports guests to sunny days at a Miami pool club. The swanky fit-out, designed by Kristy McGregor (the creative brains behind the Manly Wharf Hotel), respects historical elements of the Art Deco red brick, while adding a touch of luxury and warmth via contemporary terracotta and mint-coloured furniture.
Drinks are a strong draw card at the Light Brigade Rooftop and range from spice-infused cocktails to innovative twists on the classic Spritz. We’ve also got our eyes on the Chilli Watermelon Margaritas and Mediterranean gin, which you can drink daily from noon to midnight all while enjoying upper-class pub fare. The Light Brigade’s share-style menu plays with fire and woodfire cooking, which gives rich, robust flavours to pub classics including pizzas topped with smoked brisket, truffle ham or a medley of roast mushrooms. Be sure to also order the Totti’s-style puff bread, which is a local secret and best accompanied by a selection of antipasti including whipped buffalo ricotta and roasted eggplant caponata.
Read on for our review of the Light Brigade from 2017.
*****
By Tamar Cranswick
Like Narcissus staring adoringly at his own reflection, Sydney’s a city enamoured with its own good looks, hence our obsession with rooftop bars. Happily there’s a new rooftop in town where you can do just that.
The open-air, top floor bar is definitely the jewel in the Light Brigade’s rejuvenated crown. The old pub underwent extensive changes since the Bayfield family took ownership a few years back, and adding the top floor bar was a power move that makes the most of the pub’s prime Oxford Street location, with views stretching from Paddington clear across to the Coathanger. The glass-framed balcony has been designed to maximise skyline perving from a garden oasis decked out with low slung lounges.
The island bar servicing the rooftop is cashing in on the Frosé trend, with two slushie machines serving up summer past’s drink du jour. Here the wine is blended with Margarita mix, so the result is a little sweet. There’s a short, sharp beer and wine list, but a craft beer haven this is not. Choices on tap namecheck Coopers, James Squire pale ale and Peroni and the bottled beer sticks to the same script.
The Light Brigade has jumped on the “we’re a pub, but we do pizza” bandwagon, pumping them out of their wood-fired oven. There’s six on the menu so you can stay safe with a Margherita or thumb your nose at Naples with a vegetarian number with smoked mozzarella, pumpkin, kale and gorgonzola. Pies aside, you’re looking at upscale snacking with Sydney Rock oysters and charred grilled octopus with eggplant and blistered grapes. The Sydney pub kitchen is a very different beast these days.
Before you get too comfortable up high, remember that this is Sydney and we can’t be trusted outdoors with alcohol beyond 10pm. It’s a good thing there’s an Art Deco lounge bar one level below, and a first-floor restaurant, formerly home to La Scala. The ground floor bar is where they keep all the traditional pub trappings. There’s no fancy adornments here and on game day it’s lunacy. Swans fans pour in to watch away games on the big screens, or after home matches at the SCG to celebrate (or commiserate) and swim in a sea of red and white.
Think of the new Light Brigade as a sandwich. The bread foundation is a pub as Slim Dusty would know it, the middle filling caters to the well heeled locals and on top you have a rooftop bar as the ludicrously decorative garnish that everyone wants a piece of, because we’re a damn fine looking city and we know it.