Marble Bar

They don’t build ’em like this anymore. In terms of being the most beautiful, exquisitely constructed bar in Sydney, Marble Bar is so far ahead of the competition that no bookie would take the bet. Commissioned by Tattersall’s lottery founder George Adams and built by a team of master craftsmen in 1893 as part of the Adams Hotel – before being dismantled and carefully reconstructed under the Hilton – this subterranean landmark could trade on its grandeur alone. If you only remember its downhill slide through the ’80s and ’90s, take another look – the latter-day revamp of the Hilton saw the Marble Bar restored to its former glory. Combining Renaissance revivalism with grand Victorian architecture, it’s a dimly lit masterpiece of carved cedar, stained glass, original Julian Ashton artworks and, of course, all that richly figured marble shipped from quarries in Belgium and Africa. Bar staff are suitably proper and skilled to boot, working wonders with a cocktail list that’s as long as it is awesome, but we think this place is more suited to sipping single-malt scotch, of which they have a lot. And never mind the awed hush that infects patrons – live house bands fill the chamber of secrets with soul, r’n’b, funk and more, Wednesday through Saturday.