In Sydney Australia Terry found the opulent Marble Bar (488 George Street Sydney NSW 2000) where we relaxed over several drinks between our tourist rushes. The bar was first built in 1883 in the former Adams Hotel on Pitts Street. The entire venue was painstakingly dismantled and moved to it’s present location at the Hilton Sydney. The original George Adams Bar was built for the then astronomical price of 32,000 pounds. The money was secured through the Tattersall Sweeps, one of a series of horse races held in New South Whales at the end of the 1800s. The decoration of the bar followed the traditions of the Italian Renaissance with Corinthian columns capped by solid brass capitols. 100 tons of marble were used from the best Belgium and African mines. Decorative stained glass panels can be found everywhere giving the room a warm magical glow.
A few people were curious as my sketch progressed. Locals are proud of this historic bar. A women stopped to tell us the bars entire history. I ordered a tasty Charlie Chaplin simply because I like the silent era comedian. The Charlie Chaplin Cocktail was one of the premier drinks of the Waldorf-Astoria prior to 1920. It has an equal mix of lime, apricot brandy and sloe gin and is documented in A.S. Crockett‘s The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book and it’s a nice, gentle mix, which is sweet and tasty.
A huge party of well dressed patrons soon filled the bar. They might have been from a wedding or business group, I couldn’t decide. The dress code of the bar is “smart casual” and Terry and I might not have met the code since our dress code wan “casual tourist.” We and I returned upstairs to the busy modern streets of Sydney stepping from the romance of this historic time capsule.