By Rebecca Harris
Sydney’s small bar culture is continuing to thrive with the opening of a hidden laneway bar in the Sydney CBD.
Called Grasshopper, the environmentally-conscious bar is the brainchild of well-known industry figures Martin O’Sullivan, John Toubia, Belinda Lai and chef Richard Duff, who also opened the temporary Seven Metre Bar in Underwood Street last year.
Located in Temperance Lane, a little known alleyway off Sydney’s busy George Street, the bar is divided into two distinct levels, featuring a French bistro-inspired restaurant on the first level and a basement bar.
“It’s like a Melbourne-style bar in Sydney,” O’Sullivan told TheShout. “It’s down an alleyway and it’s small and intimate but doesn’t have that slick fit-out a lot of bigger bars have. We’re about offering good, well-priced food and drinks.”
Open for lunch and dinner Monday to Friday, the bar has already garnered a lot of support from neighbouring businesses and fellow hospitality workers, in spite of its hard-to-find location.
“That’s what’s great about its location,” said Toubia. “Everyone that comes here meant to come here. You don’t just walk past and see it.”
Grasshopper joins the growing number of small bars that have opened in inner-city Sydney over the past few months including Darlinghurst’s Eau de Vie and Surry Hills’ Shady Pines Saloon.