E
EMPLOYEES ONLY
mployees Only, the world-renowned New York City bar, has opened a Sydney outpost in a heritage-listed basement on Barrack Street in the CBD. The Sydney speakeasy – which follows the opening of Employees Only bars in Hong Kong, Singapore and Miami – is spearheaded by cofounder Dushan Zaric and Robert Krueger from EO New York (pictured above centre), along with Sydney-native Anna Fang who has been brought on as bar manager. Krueger, who has worked for EO since December 2004, told BARS&clubs the plan for the bar has been in the works for about three years. “I signed on to the project last July, and the space has been secured since about that time – since then it’s just been moving forward on all fronts: negotiating with council, the heritage building, and getting our hours of operation set up with the powers that be,” he said. Given the well-documented regulatory challenges of opening a bar in Sydney, BARS&clubs asked Krueger why the harbour city was chosen as the location for the Australian Employees Only outpost. 8 BARS&clubs
“I think that Sydney is the more connected city internationally [versus Melbourne],” he explained. “In New York we meet people from Australia all the time, because Australians travel so much, and in Singapore too. But there’s a little more traffic between New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and that’s part of what we are – a place that has global regulars. “Also, Employees Only is a prohibition-themed concept, and Sydney has been undergoing its prohibition fight in the form of lockout for five or six years now. The space we’ve got has a licence that we’re able to extend to 3am, so we’ll be able to do what we always have done, which is be the last guys open, and be there for when people get out of work.” The cocktail list for the venue includes a number of classics that made the original New York bar famous, along with bespoke drinks designed especially for Sydney – with alterations to the menu occurring “roughly seasonally”. Unlike many of the bars in the Sydney CBD, which do not have dedicated, full-service kitchens, Employees Only will be a place where food and drink go hand in hand. The bistro menu
is led by head chef Aurelien Girault and will feature new dishes with a wide-reaching range of flavours, ingredients, cuisines and cultures to cater to the Sydney palate. As well as the fact that it’s a restaurant, serving an all-night menu from 5pm-3am, Krueger also points out another point of difference at EO, compared to other speakeasies in the nearby area. “The music gets a little more party level at EO,” he explains. “We don’t have a dancefloor, but people like to boogie together and the place is designed so people bump into each other.” And of course, at the heart of it all are the same ideals that EO was founded on – caring for people in the service industry as well as ‘regular’ guests. “We want people to be hurrying in the closeout of their bars so that they can come and take care of themselves, and so we can take care of them on their way home,” said Krueger. “That’s what Employees Only was founded for and there’s definitely a need for it in the CBD.” Address: 9a Barrack St, Sydney NSW
