Trinity bar & bistro

Many a time have I walked past the corner of Devonshire and Crown Street in Surry Hills and wondered why people seemed to so enjoy sitting on the outside terrace at the Trinity in amidst all the traffic. Well, we weren't out the front but sampling the delights of this bar on a recent weekend I kind of get why they are out there.

This pub is trying to be a 'proper' old school pub. Not in the Rocks sense of having hose down walls but in that Ye Olde England sense with lots of dark wood and a wide beer selection. So far so good. We were ushered upstairs into the function room because there were rater too many of us for the tables downstairs. Upstairs has been done up, like so many Sydney pubs but I can't say I entirely disapprove. They've made sure there's an outside area, inside is not too fussy - some good long couches and tables with chair and the quirky wall prints were a nice surprise.

The food is well up near the 20$ mark but I didn't hear any complaints. Thankfully not Ye Olde Pubbe Grubbe but pretty standard mod-oz-pub. My salad with haloumi and sweet potato etc was rather delicious, filling and only 16$.

So overall, nothing exciting but quite an acceptable function venue if you want your own space and not to be shut up in some poky corner room.

Corner Crown and Devonshire St, Surry Hills. Website here.

A Rose by any other name..

La rose la rose la rose

Location: Chippendale, corner of Cleveland St and Shepherd St
Details: Fine pub with good food, good beer and a nice crowd

This drinking emporium used to be my local a few years ago so returns are always tinged with a passive-aggressive kind of nostalgia for all the nights flatmates and partners could not be persuaded off the couch in pursuit of a beverage.. it is also the bar that my characters tend to hang out in when I make my thankfully infrequent forays into fiction. In other words – it’s one of those bars that gets a strong hold on your imagination, not because it’s particularly mind blowing but because it’s rather unique in the area having a nice laid-back atmosphere, a pool table, good food and a beer garden.

When seen from the street the façade gives a reasonably good idea of what you’ll find inside – a nice old bar that’s been re-done a bit but mainly just by being painted over. What sets the Rose apart is it’s nicely sized beer garden which is sunny in summer, well heated in winter and which provides relief for smokers, sun-chasers and, on the night we last visited, for people who want to smoke and watch Rugby. The Rugby world cup brought large screens into this formerly luddite bar and they have not yet been removed. Unfortunately this also creates a bottleneck out the back as the rugby fans swill their tipple on the steps

It’s a bar for beer drinkers - the ‘cocktail bar’ out the back is probably overly ambitious, has slow service and I’ve never seen a reasonable cocktail emerge from it. The beer is good though. The restaurant out the back allows the immortal combination to be achieved: beer and pizza. The pizza is thin, flavourful and there’s no point going beyond the 13$ margarita. And then there’s a pool table for afters…