A bar built by bartenders.
Employees Only opened on Hudson Street in New York's West Village in 2004. Its founders had a philosophy: the best bar is the one where people in the service industry choose to spend their own nights off. That philosophy travelled 16,000 kilometres south.
Hudson Street, West Village.
Before the global speakeasy movement, before every cocktail bar had a hidden entrance and a barman with a moustache, there was Employees Only on Hudson Street — opened by five friends who had spent their careers behind bars and decided to build the one they actually wanted to drink at.
The founding philosophy was simple: "There's no better clientele for your bar than those who work in service in the hospitality industry." Bartenders, sommeliers, chefs, waiters — the people who stay out late because their shifts end late, and who know the difference between a good drink and a great one.
Twenty years later, the original is still there. Still packed. Still shaping the global cocktail conversation.
Barrack Street, Sydney CBD.
The Sydney chapter opened in late 2018 — a heritage-listed basement beneath a neon psychic sign on Barrack Street. Same philosophy. Same standards. Same commitment to the bartender's craft. A different city, a different room, the same spirit.
Our bartenders have trained across New York, Singapore, Miami and Hong Kong. Our kitchen works French technique across Australian produce. And our guests — the regulars we came here for — are the people who work late in Sydney's hospitality scene, and the diners who've come to appreciate what that means.
Listed among the Best Bars in Sydney by Urban List, Time Out, Hidden Secrets and Man of Many.
Hands you can see.
We hire chefs who care about provenance — about where the beef came from, who grew the produce, what was on the boat that morning. The 1.2kg tomahawk is selected by hand for marbling, dry-rubbed, chargrilled, and served with the bordelaise jus our kitchen makes from scratch.
The steak tartare is hand-made at your table, not in a kitchen. The cocktails are stirred in front of you. The room rewards watching.
Four non-negotiables.
Every cocktail, built from scratch
Syrups, infusions and cordials made daily in-house. No batch mixes. No shortcuts. If it takes three days to prepare, it takes three days.
Bartenders with pedigree
The people behind the bar have trained at some of the world's most celebrated cocktail programmes. We hire for craft and keep them for culture.
A room that does half the work
Heritage-listed basement. Art-deco details. Velvet seating. The kind of space where a drink tastes different because of the table you're sitting at.
Theatre at the table
Steak tartare hand-made at your table. Tomahawk carved with the red wine jus poured in front of you. Burlesque on Friday and Saturday nights. Hospitality as performance.
Come down.
9A Barrack Street, Sydney CBD. Tue–Fri from 4pm, Sat from 6pm.