Time Out Food & Drink Awards 2022: Best Casual Drinking Venue

From the industry legends that brought us Sydney institutions Tio’s, Cantina OK and the Cliff Dive comes the next great nocturnal adventure: Bar Planet, a psychedelic Inner West dive-bar re-imagining the world's most divisive cocktail, the Martini. The Bar Planet team has managed to pulled the ultimate party trick. They’ve taken an old, stiff drink with a reputation for being elitist and outdated, and transformed it into a fun, unpretentious, and out-of-this-world experience.

There’s nothing about this old boozer that we don’t like and we are not alone in that sentiment. We suspect if anyone ever tried to refurbish the Courthouse Hotel there’d be riots in the streets. This old pub is like a well-worn jumper – warm, comfortable, and big enough to fit anyone and everyone. And like any cherished piece of outerwear, it may be a little scuffed and faded, but that’s what happens when you love something with force. And these are only some of the reasons we love the Courty – when it comes to great pubs, the Courthouse set the standard and then never let it drop.

This corner pub, just a stroll from the Enmore Theatre, has long been the unofficial pre-drink (or post, given that it stays open until the wee hours on weekends) location for every gig, serving a different crowd each night: indie kids, crusty punks, comedy fans, theatre and sports aficionados, old rockers, metalheads and hoodies. In recent years, the Duke has had a spruce up, but a respectful one - and they've pretty much left the excellent sheltered beer garden right as it always was. 

There’s no need to look at the Old Fitz all that closely to notice there have been some changes. Nothing major from the outside – fresh signage, more outdoor seating and some striped umbrellas better suited, perhaps, to a St Tropez beach club than a 160-year-old pub. Inside, the state of affairs is much the same, from the crimson carpet and pressed tin ceilings to the cranking fireplace. The theatre remains, too, out the back and down the stairs. And that’s a good thing, because the diehard local regulars and their dogs would likely stage a riot otherwise.

Almost 70 years of history as a coffee shop, Piccolo Bar has completed it’s metamorphosis into Sydney’s smallest (and one of it’s coolest) new bars. Not just an allusion to the quick shot of caffeine keeping the locals going for the better part of a century, Piccolo is a tightly-packed step back in time. Seating just twenty people inside and eight outside (until 10pm), there’s every chance you will have to wait for a seat. We recommend you wait for it. You won’t be disappointed. Once you do score your table, you’ll be greeted by owner, David Spanton, who, like Piccolo itself, is friendly and easygoing. In a sea of bro-centric and self-consciously 'cool' bars, a welcome at the door of such lovely and unassuming kindness seems like a rarity in this day and age but it’s authentic, cemented by staff who will always remember you by name.

If, god forbid, anyone ever flipped on the grown-up lights at the Ramblin’ Rascal, what might it look like under the cold, sober light of fluoro? A barely renovated former comedy club in the basement of a nondescript city office block full of dentists, orthodontists and maxillofacial surgeons. The booths are vinyl and the carpet is – well, the less said about the carpet the better. Eyes front, people. But that said, show us another bar team in the state that can so readily be recognised by their skull logos alone. The rascals who make up the core team at the Rascal are so clearly delineated in look, roles and manner they might as well have their own trading cards. Long may they ramble.

The Winery is always packed. It doesn’t matter if it’s a school night, Sunday afternoon or just gone 5pm, people cannot get enough of the Crown Street drinking hole. Fairy lights twinkle over picturesque collections of garden benches, frangipani trees and sweet little cast-iron tables in a dreamy oasis that could be near the shores of Nice, not the backstreets of Surry Hills. Secondly, they don’t expect you to know anything about wine beyond ‘this tastes good’ when you drink here. Ask the bartender and they’ll rustle you up something that is just the thing you didn’t know to ask for.

Time Out’s People’s Choice Awards this year invited readers to select their favourite restaurant, bar, pub and café, and the votes are in.