Time Out Sydney Food & Drink Awards 2025: Casual Drinking Venue Nominees

If you’re wondering where the humans are in Brookvale, they’re all throwing back pints at Bucketty’s. Arrive any hour of the weekend and the brewery is thrumming, even rolling out a red-rope barrier when it starts to spill over. When you’re struggling past car dealerships and abandoned warehouses along Pittwater Road, Bucketty’s unfolds from a desolate backstreet. It's like an unexpected (and welcome) mirage. Husband-and-wife team Nick and Lexi McDonald moved into the sprawling warehouse space in 2021, joining nearly a dozen other craft breweries in the unsuspecting Northern Beaches suburb. And they're just getting started.

Ever since Alice fell down the rabbit hole, people have cottoned on to the fact that stepping into an entirely new world can be pretty damn fun – and yes, pleasurable. Stressed at work? Relationship woes? In the midst of an existential crisis? Good news: as soon as you see that purple eye on Wilson Street, you can leave your worries at the door before descending the stairs into a basement bar where hedonism is not only welcome, but encouraged. Pleasure Club is remarkable for a few reasons, including it’s the first bar in Newtown in more than 100 years to be granted approval to trade until 4am seven days a week. Secondly, there are free live performances every night, from rock and blues to psychedelic tunes. So, what are you waiting for?

The Sydney suburb of Haberfield famously has no pubs. When a man named Des Middleton tried to open one here in 1948, more than half of the suburb’s population (that was 4,238 residents, at the time) voted against it. Over the years, some Haberfield restaurateurs have even struggled to secure liquor licenses for their eateries. So, to this day, this little Inner Western suburb full of heritage homes is still without a pub. Despite the area’s Italian-ness, it doesn’t even have a wine bar. We’d say it doesn’t need a pub when it has UTS Haberfield Rowers. This waterfront venue has an easy, breezy, always-summery vibe, and it’s the perfect place for an afternoon or balmy-evening drink (and yes, the only place in this ’hood where you can have a drink without eating).

If The Bat & Ball was having an identity crisis, the crisis is now over. The fantastic five friends on a mission to open a pub with heart, with great food and drink, budget-friendly offerings and space for the locals, families, the hip young things and the revellers have achieved their mission. The Bat & Ball is no longer just a stop off on the way to and from the SCG, but again worthy as a destination in its own right.

When you enter The Bristol, you feel less like you’ve stepped into a pub, and more like you’re inside a multi-layered hospitality precinct. From its unassuming entryway on Sussex Street, where CBD traffic chugs to a standstill and glass building close out the sky, The Bristol’s stock-standard taproom opens out to chic Greek eatery Ela Ela at the back, a full-blown sports bar and games room below, and yet three more distinct venues on the storeys above. As you ascend a staircase set with rattan mirrors and portraits of mid-century pool parties, you’ll glimpse Calypso nightclub on level one and Midtown Bar and Lounge on level two. Then there's the sprawling, Med-style rooftop at the summit. How many Sydney pubs can offer a bonafide bar crawl under one roof?