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WHEN MARTIN O’SULLIVAN opened his small Grasshopper bar in Sydney’s awkwardly-named Temperance Lane three years ago, his friends thought it was madness.
What would entice drinkers down a tiny lane into a basement last inhabited by a printing business when there were plenty of lively pubs and beer barns nearby?
“Everyone thought I was a nut case,” he says.
But in the ever-thirsty city the Grasshopper has flourished, at the vanguard of an explosion in small bars after a change in liquor licensing laws allowed a move away from the traditional large pub to intimate drinking holes.
“It’s about the cultural change, because pubs have had a good run for some 180 years,” says O’Sullivan, whose restaurant bar serves drinks in glass jars and decants wines into glass laboratory flasks.
When the idea of amending liquor licensing laws to help bring smaller, boutique bars to Sydney was first floated it was scoffed at by then-president of the New South Wales Australian Hotel Association, John Thorpe. He told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007:
We aren’t barbarians, but we don’t want to sit in a hole and drink chardonnay and read a book.
O’Sullivan said the comment struck a chord.
“There couldn’t have been a better quote. A lot of men were like ‘I don’t mind a beer, but the idea of sitting in a pub that smells like cigarettes with pokies (slot machines) in the background and the TAB (betting agency) isn’t particularly my idea of a lovely drinking establishment’.”
Ladies’ lounge
He says one of the drivers of the growth in small bars has been their appeal to women, who up until the 1960s were banned from entering the public bar in many Australian pubs, instead being ushered into the ladies’ lounge.
“When these small bars started, there was a huge influx of women. And they weren’t coming in and getting drunk,” says O’Sullivan, who heads the Small Bar Association of New South Wales.
“We don’t have TVs, we don’t have the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship),” he says, adding that small bars tend to focus on quality wines, artisan products, cocktails and great service.
In 2008, the New South Wales state government agreed to change laws which cut the costs for some liquor licences.
The move allowed small, boutique bars to flourish, with more than 70 opening within the city precinct, and many more across Sydney in the years since.
Broaden options for drinkers
Lord Mayor Clover Moore was instrumental in helping push through the law, believing the change would not only broaden options for drinkers, but bring other benefits.
“Not everyone wants to drink in a large pub or a noisy club, and small bars offer an intimate, boutique alternative,” a council spokesman said.
“They are a key component of the city’s efforts to revitalise Sydney and bring life and variety back to our laneways and small streets.”
It means that there has been a rash of distinctive bars popping up in basements and other hidden niches in the city, including Stitch with its old-fashioned sewing-machines, the Baxter Inn whisky den, and Absinthe Salon which specialises in the wormwood spirit.
O’Sullivan claimed:
It’s not so much that drinks have changed or that consumption has changed…. the big thing is the ability now for choice.
“For me, I can walk out the door now and I can go to a rum bar, I can go to a scotch bar… so now there’s a choice, whereas before I could go to a pub, a pub, a pub… or a restaurant or a nightclub.”
Complementary, not competition
O’Sullivan says despite the profusion, small bars see each other as complementary rather than competition, adding that he is always happy to point drinkers in the direction of other establishments, such as the Mojo Record Bar.
Natalie Ng, who co-manages the warm bar hiding behind a vinyl record store, says it caters to the after-work drinkers as well as music lovers.
“Being a music bar we don’t have a certain genre so to speak, but we feed off our sales in the record store,” she says of the music, which stretches from old school 60s and 70s hits, rock ‘n roll, to swing, funk, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
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They are not Irish, they are ‘Traveller’.
O’Brien, Kiely and O’Reilly being renowned traveller surnames
Well if they are not Irish then we can kick them out of Ireland.
Who will sign my petition?
The Todd..did you see the original article monhs ago? Did you see the TV News Reports from Australia? Obviously not because you would know the truth and not be relying on names to identify the ‘ethnicity’ of these criminals.
Ye some of them were travellers. Not all. But sure you go for it there
All of the surnames you listed are on this list
http://www.travellerheritage.ie/parish_records_of_surnames.asp
Haha that lists covers half the surnames in Ireland. Using your logic, anyone that has those surnames are travellers. Come on now, I know it’s the weekend, let’s not get too crazy though
Pibaldshite
Haha, no todd. Mary was just giving you proof that people with those surnames can be travellers! But dont let that get in the way of your little rant..
What rant exactly? Just because they can be traveller surnames doesn’t mean that they are in this regard. No article I have found makes these three men as travellers. But due to Irish people’s ignorance travellers are the most discriminated against and prejudged people in Irish society. We voted on equality only a few weeks ago yet choose to treat these people as easy targets. I’m in agreement that what’s these lads done is utterly disgusting, but why try to use them as a opportunity to slate all travellers. There’s a rant for you
@The Todd;
Mary Louny did NOT assert that anyone whose name is on the list is a traveller.
The list was introduced to counteract YOUR illogical argument that, because of their names) they were NOT travellers.
Before slagging off other people with “… by your logic…” you would do well to have a look at your own, and also learn what the word actually means!
My apologies, but a list with 70 odd surnames wouldn’t be something I would view as conclusive evidence. There has been nothing to say these men are travellers, so it’s quite presumptuous regardless. I think it was the dig all the community in general that got under my skin
Sorry, it was more of a silly deflection to the fact you were wrong than a rant!. With your logic, anybody with the names O’brien, Kiely and O’Reilly cant be travellers?. I agree with a lot of your comments I see todd, but sometimes you just clearly hate being wrong..
Todd..you obviously have access to the internet..go find the original TV news reports and then come back here and inform us that the group involved are not travellers. Don’t be so lazy, do some research before criticising others.
As I said above, some of them were travellers. Sorry maybe I am wrong but it just annoys me how quick people are to slate all travellers with the actions of a few. I’ll take my outrage elsewhere
it’s the scam that suggests travellers, it’s one they have used for years in Ireland and last year in Australia
it is a scam normally associated with travellers though .lowest if the low to do that to anybody. especially the elderly .
They are filth, they deliberately do a bad job and screw the most out of the old and vulnerable. A decent days work is not in their genes. Same people do it all over Europe and the States and indeed at home. Pure vermin.
@The Todd… if you feel so strongly about backing travellers, just put up a few stories about all the good travellers have done recently to counter balance people’s comments…
Does it really matter, you can’t choose your biological parents, however nobody can condone what they did, preying on the elderly like that. Sorry boss if my comment offends anyone.
Yes that’s right they are an ethnic group so why are they calling them Irish
David, your surname is on the list above. Are you a traveller? Mark, unfortunately media don’t report any good done by travellers because good news doesn’t sell. There are a small cohort of travellers who give a lot of them a bad name and it’s always media porn. Same with youths, same with migrants, and the same with anyone viewed as “the other”.
@the Todd, what good have you witnessed from them so? or are you basing your defence of them on nothing
I think you got that the wrong way around , there are a small amount of travellers who are good people , but that’s it
@The Todd, small cohort my a**e, in this case alone 7 men and19 women and children were detained after a raid on their “camp”. No doubt, the ones that were deported and not imprisoned have learnt their lesson and wont be bad any more.
On another note, can you explain the wealth of ethnic minority.
I’ve witnessed plenty of good, I’ve very rarely had a bad experience with any travellers. Look at Galway and the work they are doing in reinsulating houses over that way. Plenty work in run of the mill jobs but don’t identify as travellers within organisations due to the discrimination that they face. I’m not denying that there are issues within their way of life, and things that must be addressed, but vilifying them consistently can only further isolate them from general civilisation. This us and them attitude does nothing for anyone and until this is addressed barriers will always remain. I knew I wasn’t gonna get much agreement here but I can only try to advocate for equality, it can only but have positive outcomes for all involved.
Todd.. The traveller culture surpresses women, the women are expected to marry young, often without finishing 2nd level schooling.. But of course their representatives blame the ‘settled’ community for not doing enough to keep them in school.. They are then expected to stay at home rearing families and cleaning. Traveller fathers would most definitely not allow their daughters to marry ‘settled’ people and no one would dare criticise that view…but if a ‘settled’ person said they would bar their children from marrying a traveller then they would be labelled racist.
Travellers bring a lot of problems onto themselves and their representatives do them no favours by failing to acknowledge that fact.
So you’re saying we should ignore facts just to be all pc to a group that has decided they want to treated equally but differently at the same time,while making treating them differently illegal and racist.
And your Surname could be there too Todd if you did not prefer the safe option of hiding behind a pseudonym . My Grandmothers name was Kiely so I am qualified to have an opinion on the subject Boss !
it is them who regularly put forward the US versus them, they say they are a different ethnic group constantly and should be treated differently. 85% of them don’t work (quote from Patrick Collins of pavee point on the journal ) yet they seem to have an abundance of money available..
I did just acknowledge that above. And as a settled person having had a girlfriend who was a traveller, I find your understanding to be ill informed. There are many problems that must be addressed but it’s hard to address them when the biggest issue is that they face discrimination from 99% of the country. Did you know that one in six males commit suicide within the traveller community, which is already disproportionately high to any other group. Their access to health care and non discriminatory education is also a massive issue. In my eye, education is integral to advancing any community but the 99% must also educate themselves on what it means to be a traveller and how much discrimination they face. Rather than rely on the vitriol spewed by media which in any other instance would be condemned
David my auld flower, my name is Stephen Todd, you’ll find me there on Facebook. Todd being my surname of course. I take it that you look like an egg is it? You’ll also find this directly links to my Twitter. Pseudohypocrite maybe
I rely on my own two eyes and my own two ears.
So even though I’ve come up with examples, I’m still undoubtably wrong? I’m away to watch the football
The Todd.. How, where and when are travellers denied access to health care? The schools are available to them but because their culture involves moving around a lot it sort of interferes with regular lessons.
To be sure !
Travellers maybe, Irish yes, so, Mary, your point is ?
You’re all missing the point, they maybe travellers but they are still Irish!
Mary, your list defines them as IRISH, you say they are not. Is your list, provided, incorrect ?
I dont think Tod could find any good in any thing the travelers have done recently or in the past! And…if he supports their behavior…culture etc try employing a few of them and i guarantee he’ll soon change his attitude towards them!
I’ve just outlined it in a post above, and have also worked with many travellers, none of whom I’ve found as much as difficult.
They got very light sentences, pity.
They are in Australia on Irish passports which means they are IRISH. It’s an idiotic argument that tries to say otherwise.
Love to see the right-wing crowd come out disavowing the traveller community as Irish. Sure on every article about the government’s continued refusal to grant them separate ethnic status, you all harp on and on and on about the fact they shouldn’t get it because they just want to use it to play the victim. As soon as it suits your agenda, you’re quick enough to claim them as a different ethnicity.
Todd, every Irish person looking for work in Australia is going to hear remarks about these criminals. Pretty sure they’ll work twice as hard to prove they’re not like that. Fair enough to blame the people who did the damage and cheated those people out of their hard-earned money. Are you saying that travellers are going to have a collection to pay those people back? Who wouldn’t respect that? A bit of positive community action would be great to see.
Fcukers! Got what they deserved.
They have the same modus operandi here but get away with it
“26 Irish people were deported from Perth at the time of the men’s initial arrest.”
No prizes for guessing to where they have been deported..
God help us, these travelling tricksters are probably back in Ireland,climbing on the roofs of Irish elderly citizens, as I write.
Could they not have been brought to the centre of the Island (Australia) and left there for the lizards to pick their bones.?
The Aussies will have to be a little more selective in issuing (presumably) holiday visas to the Irish.
@John Bennett,
Will they still have a clean Irish record now?
It seems rather odd that criminal convictions stop at the border and you have a clean slate then at the other side. Its also a problem we have within Europe of course.
@ john you dont need a clean criminal history to get an australian holiday visa or working holiday visa, the question is asked but no proof has to be provided. It is only when going for a permanent residency visa that you have to provide proof.
Well done Australia, in Ireland Pavee Point would have whined and whinged until the local authorities had yet again ignored their criminality and instead paid for this utter filth to get a new house, equestrian centre etc for them to pillage, ransack and burn – They are laughing at us…. Simple.
The cheek of them. Hope karma gets catches up with them good and proper…
Who is karma.?
If Karma was a brand of steel toe boots, then I would agree.
Cowards preying on the elderly. I hope their time in prison is hell on earth.
They are an embarrassment to the Irish community in Australia.
I hope the Australian media labels them as Travellers (if that is the case) as distinct from ‘Irish’.
They entered Australia on Irish passports so they are Irish and where correctly reported in the Australian media as being Irish.
You’ve purposely missed my point.
had to be creamers.give them 10 years hard labour
Jacobs I would say
Disgusting really. Picking easy targets. Some criminals they are
The Todd f it smells like a duck, waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck, and it’s name is smith, it’s still a duck…….called smith!!!
S(umbags makes it hard of us irish trying to make a life for or selfs out here.
Hope they get the Boss!
You can’t put me in jail, – dat’s ‘scrimination boss.
Anyone who is convicted of abusing the elderly should get 10 years minimum.
I’d prefer stiffer penalties, like hanging.
I struggle to understand how a judge can describe this as ‘sophisticated’. It requires a level of shamelessness and intimidation certainly, but I don’t see the sophistication.
Unfortunately it is an age old scam that continues to happen in this country, we don’t seem to able to deal with it as efficiently. Sadly the perpetrators target the most vulnerable in society.
At least the Australian police catch them and prosecute. Here, they roam with impunity.
thank the courts for that!
Sadly the ones they deported will return to the luxury us suckers will provide for them for the rest of their lives.
Dirty rotten cream crackers at it again, and now we have their cousins the vermin roma at the same here
Jacobs are foul things aren’t they?
Will this mean that they will qualify for transportation to Ireland on the other side of the World?
Was in Perth for a few weeks, I think they’re getting the worst of the Irish. Possibly could be because its cheaper to get to Perth or maybe Western Oz is still desperate for more people.
That’s quiet a bold statement to make because you were in Perth for a few weeks you think you meet every Irish person. Perth is far from cheap, maybe a few hundred cheaper to fly to but certainly not cheap to live in.
Sucm.
Any scam against vulnerable people should be punished – not on the same scale but my parents were scammed by a telecoms company. the stress and anxiety it caused my father was sickening. I would love to see something similar happen here.
I like that the Oz police don’t take shi*t and just jail and deport – fk human rights .. I wish more countries would approach the Oz laws and processes !!
The police don’t jail anybody…the courts do.
Sure everybody loves the Irish, olé, olé, olé.
Nasty,crafty people.
Everyone deserves a second chance
disgraceful making a bad name for the irish lads and lassies workin hard over there
Lock them all up giving the young lads and ladies a bad that moved over there in bad times to try make a go of it
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