A heritage-listed venue in the heart of Sydney’s CBD has reopened its doors as a cocktail bar with a twist. Bridge Lane Bar promises an immersive cocktail experience, with ambitious plans to become Sydney’s first recognised house of caviar.
The relaunch of Bridge Lane Bar, in the space that was formerly Speakeasy’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, offers a fusion of New York speakeasy allure, expertly crafted cocktails, and luxurious ambience.
Beverage Manager Dave Green gave an insight of the venue’s recent transformation: “We decided to knock down a wall and extend the venue further, so we’ve gone from a 77-seater venue to 144-seater. We’ve also made some modifications to the venue to make it more luxurious, but what’s really luxurious is the cocktail and caviar offering.”
“One of our owners is from Russia and imports caviar himself. He wants to make Bridge Lane the first recognised house of caviar in Sydney. Our aim is to deliver the same high-end luxury bar that you would experience overseas, this is what Sydney has been missing out on for the last 10-15 years.”
Taking inspiration from the wave of bespoke bars becoming increasingly popular in many Asian cities, Dave is passionate about creating a unique end-to-end experience.
“Our cocktail menu will be driven by the concept of luxury. We asked our guests what luxury means to them, the most common answers we got were quality, travel and fashion. We are bringing together luxury experiences and high-quality products to form a bespoke cocktail menu.”
The cocktail list has been developed with those three components in mind: quality, travel, and fashion. Dave described how Bridge Lane Bar’s mixologists will bring a fashion component to the art of cocktail making, “We have created a different style of martini, which is more aromatic and has the same characteristics as a perfume.”
“For the travel element, one of our cocktails involves creating frozen ice glasses to represent a trip to the far north of Finland and bring a cold essence to the drinker. This will be served up with flowers embedded into chocolate squares and snow gloves so that the guest is able to pick up the glass. We’re bringing that element of Finland with the snow, complemented with Scandinavian flavours.”
Adopting an experience-driven approach puts the customer at the heart of everything Bridge Lane Bar hopes to offer. In today’s digital era, Dave believes that re-thinking the customer experience will pave a promising path for the bar.
“Around the world, people who are going out are looking for an experience. People want to share something different on social media. When cocktail bars began to strip themselves back to a simpler regime, we lost that element. People are coming back to unique experiences, and that’s what we provide.”
“We want to re-educate our guests about what bespoke luxury service truly is, through perfecting old methods while exploring new service rituals as the venue evolves through the months ahead.”
Bridge Lane Bar welcomes guests to its venue on Bridge Lane in Sydney CBD on Thursdays from 5pm – 12am, and Fridays – Saturdays from 5pm – 1am.
