2020's hospitality casualties are basically innumerable at this point, but today's news is a little much for a Monday.
On a Sydney subreddit on Sunday, August 30, user /u/dbrowndownunder posted an image showing Surry Hills karaoke bar Ding Dong Dang's switched-off neon sign taken down and lying askew on the footpath in front of the venue.
“RIP to another Sydney landmark,” the user wrote. “Thank you, Ding Dong Dang, for many nights drunkenly belting away into the wee hours of the morning." The Australian then reported today, Monday August 31, that Ding Dong Dang had indeed closed, having "succumbed to the economic pressure of the pandemic."
The karaoke joint near Central Station – whose train announcements, supposedly, gave Ding Dong Dang its onomatopoeic name – was a much-loved part of Sydney's nightlife, offering revellers the chance to belt out rendition after terrible rendition of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Untouched' by the Veronicas at ungodly hours. Ding Dong Dang, was, of course, also nominally a bar, though its drinks selection didn't extend much past slightly warm white wine and soft drinks, while its culinary offerings bravely resisted the tapas-style share plates so endemic to venues in its surrounding neighbourhood and stuck squarely to dusty packets of snacks you'd find at on the bottom shelf of a servo.
Gone, but in our hearts forever.
