Curiously Different Australian Bars

For some of us, the experience of social drinking is singularly bizarre enough. For others, there must be a twist both in and outside the Martini glass. If you're looking to follow your fancy into a whimsical hollow, take our quick tour guide.

The Rum Diaries in Sydney's Bondi fuses surf chic with literary modernism. No, really. If there was a typical patron ordering from the a menu printed on wood blocks in this dark, Key West inspired nook, it would be Ernest Hemingway dressed in Rip Curl.

For centuries, Sydney's strangeness has unfurled by the water. The peculiar tradition continues on Cockatoo Island. Truly dedicated bar-hoppers will take a ferry and visit The Island Bar. If you've never played a slightly squiffy game of croquet in the middle of Sydney Harbour, take a boat and order a gin Wednesdays to Sundays.

Not to be outdone, Sydney’s southern sister also covers the waterfront. The temporary Ponyfish Island turns the pylons of a foot bridge into a great bacchanal. What Melbourne lacks in sunshine, it makes up for in laneway strangeness. Long held as the Petri-dish of stylish urban strangeness is The Croft Institute where your potations will be served in beakers and your seating will look, for all the world, like an under-funded Year 8 science lab. See also retro-futurist lab Robot, the louche, Long Island languor of Madame Brussels and, basically, anywhere set just next to a wheelie bin.

If the everyday is getting to you in Brisvegas, take your medicine at The Mana Bar. Here, you can tame the Lions of Lich, or whatever it is that gamers do, as you drink. Here, you’ll find, perhaps, the nation’s most gamer friendly joint.

What’s a curious bar in your city?

SM King, Citysearch

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