At a glance you might not think much of the Chicago Athletic Hotel, but little do you know that hidden away on its second floor is Milk Room. What was once a speakeasy during America’s infamous Prohibition has now appropriately been transformed into an unsuspecting eight-seat micro bar. Specialising in hard-to-find ingredients, Milk Bar takes it back to classic cocktails featuring rare and vintage spirits.
Adorned with stained glass windows, candles and iron light fittings, the dimly lit interior sets an intimate ambience for your evening visit. The bar also offers a finely crafted menu of share plates, so you won’t go hungry. Milk Room, however, is not for the faint of wallet, although its rare spirits served in a piece of delicious history is worth the dosh if you’re splashing out.
Singapore’s Nineteen80 Bar is throwing it back to the decade of shoulder pads, perms and fluorescent lycra. A bright neon ‘arcade’ sign draws you into this bar. Once inside you’ll find walls covered with cassette tapes and game-inspired artworks.
Space Invaders, Puzzle Bobble, Pac-Man, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter amp up the nostalgia, while you sip cocktails from an era that made them trendy. Variations and remixes of Long Island Ice Tea and Blue Lagoon, as well as signature cocktails like the strawberry Donna Summer, can be enjoyed while your favourite beats from the 80s and 90s finish the flashback.
Head down to Circular Quay, where you’ll find Salt Meats Cheese’s latest venture, Bar Ombré. And with a happy hour that features $5 beers and $10 spritzes, plus free bar snacks, it’s turning heads for all the right reasons.
Boasting million-dollar views of Sydney Harbour from its rooftop perch on the uppermost level of the Gateway Building, the bar brings a welcome slice of Europe to Circular Quay.
A colourful fit-out with plenty of lush greenery makes for an inviting setting – ideal for co-founders Edoardo Perlo and Stefano de Blasi, who are both from Northern Italy, to serve up antipasto plates loaded with cured meats, wood-baked focaccia and stretched cheese made fresh daily. Bellissimo!
Now we don’t want to sway the battle for Sydney’s hottest rooftop bar, but we think Smoke Bar, located at Barangaroo House, is a serious contender. More than just a catchy name, ‘smoke’ is actually a theme that resonates through the food and cocktail menus.
Smoked trout and smoked brisket doughnuts are just two of the smouldering highlights, but it’s the Smoky Martini that’s really worth lining up for. Speaking of, don’t expect to waltz in with your Havvies on after a Bondi sun-sesh – this is the type of establishment with table service and expects guests to dress up for the occasion.
It’s totally worth it though. Smoke proves you can still get the wow factor without a bridge or Opera House vista.
Melbourne is flooded with speakeasy bars hidden behind the city’s buildings. But the Store Room in St Kilda is one tucked-away spot we’re glad we found. Getting into this barbershop-turned-bar is part of the fun. The number two button on an old phone opens the key to the cosy, eclectic cocktail bar furnished with collectables.
Memorabilia, including surfboards, old ladders, oars, vintage mirrors and remote-controlled aeroplanes, is scattered across the walls and ceiling, while the bar is stocked with hand-blown glassware from Mexico. Carrying the Prohibition-style into its cocktail menu, Store Room offers a small wine list and an extensive range of spirits including whiskey, vodka and gin.
You might be surprised to hear there’s a craft beer revolution happening in Estonia, and it’s the Põhjala Brewery leading the frothy charge. The team behind Põhjala – several Estonians and a Scotsman – are, of course, beer enthusiasts. Their industrial-style brewery is so impressive, they also offer behind-the-scenes tours so visitors can see fermentation magic taking place. Beers are brewed and aged in oak barrels and many are infused with ingredients like bark and sap straight from Estonian forests.
There are 24 taps pouring the good stuff, ranging from IPAs to barley wine. Meanwhile, a Texas BBQ menu ensures those imbibing remain well fed at all times. Our absolute favourite feature, however, is the on-site sauna, which can be rented by the hour. Gather your mates and a few bevs then kick back while sweating it out. Cheers to that!
Check out the Wise King, a Hong Kong cocktail bar inspired by a Spanish fable. Legend has it that King Alfonso X, The Wise, was instructed to have small amounts of wine and snacks between meals to recover from an illness, prompting the birth of tapas. This is the theme behind the doors of this great bar.
It takes its design cues from the thirteenth century – think hues of gold, brown and red – including lush velvets and decorative brocade. The kitchen delivers a menu of bite-sized nibbles with Spanish, Moroccan and Italian influences, as well as modern takes on cocktails. Pair your patatas bravas with the bar’s take on a whisky sour, the Turron Sour.
Concealed inside the walls of a historic 1911 building that was originally a pool hall, you’ll find a nine-room boutique hotel and restaurant with a secret. For most visiting the mountain-town of Revelstoke, the delicious smoky smells of the acclaimed Quartermaster restaurant that waft through its big industrial doors are enough to lure you in. But it’s the secret little boiler room that really captures us.
Tucked away beneath the restaurant, this speakeasy bar (boiler room) offers an intimate setting for those wishing to enjoy a curated selection of whisky, spirits and cocktails, all while marvelling at a 100-year-old coal-fired boiler. It’s moody and mysterious – just the way we like our hidden bars to be. If you need us, you’ll know where we’ll be!
Juliet Melbourne is a place that celebrates three of our favourite things: cheese, wine and women. There’s an exciting wine list featuring only female winemakers, and most of the drops are Australian, too. The aforementioned cheese comes in the form of Juliet Melbourne’s signature dish, the raclette, its melty goodness scraped over smashed kipflers, sourdough and, for omnivores, proscuitto, accompanied by a decent pile of cornichons. Order it and thank us later.
There are also charcuterie plates and other seasonal dishes designed for sharing. In typical Melbourne fashion, this intimate bar is tucked down a laneway. Just follow your nose to Little Bourke Street where the mouthwatering aromas will lead you in the right direction.
A nondescript door with a sign that says ‘Staff Only’ is the lone clue you’ll get that you’re close to stumbling upon Korobok, a secret underground bar in Moscow. Owned and run by the esteemed White Rabbit Group, who also own Tehnikum next door, Korobok is perhaps best known for being the bar with no menu. Instead, head barman Evgeny Shashin and his team of world-class mixologists will whip up a cocktail in accordance with your preferred tastes.
Each drink also comes with a perfume – carefully curated to enhance the cocktail you’ve ordered. Talk about personalised service! Korobok means boxes, or matchbox, in Russian, which is a telling name considering the bar itself is just a single chamber that looks more like a lounge room. With dark leather couches and dim lighting to create a warm and inviting space, you won’t regret having to search a little to find this watering hole.
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