The Clare Hotel

If you had to sum up the Clare with a pithy title, you couldn’t do much better than ‘Sydney’s living room’. Long the haunt of UTS students and ABC employees, the main bar is large with classic tiled walls, filled for the most part with an eccentric range of comfortable couches, and art. Off to the side is the pokie room (an incongruous reminder that the Clare is indeed a pub) and smokers can congregate in the alley behind, which is worth a peek for the regularly updated graffiti mural on the back wall. Beers on tap range from givens like Carlton Draught to more esoteric draws like Boston Mill and Pipsqueak Cider. Best of all is the flat $5 price for a schooner across all the taps. Spirits will set you back $7, and a glass of wine from the list (hint: it’s either ‘red’ or ‘white’) is $5.50. If you need to soak up the delightfully cheap booze you’ve been drinking, the friendly bar staff can order in a pizza for you. It’s easy to have fun at the Clare. If conversation isn’t cutting it, hit the pool table or show off your skills on one of their three pinball machines. Tuesday is trivia night and Fridays and Saturdays, when the bar is packed to bursting, feature DJs.