Why Odd Culture Backs Late-Night Venues As Essential In Making Sydney A Truly Global City

You may (or may not) remember back in 2022, that Sydney’s well-versed hospitality collective, Odd Culture Group, was granted a seven-day, 4am licence by the city of Sydney Council for a then-new 400-square-metre basement bar in Newtown. 

It was a colossal effort to diversify Sydney’s late-night entertainment offering, where mutterings of making Sydney a ‘24-hour' cultural destination were in their mere infancy. 

The venue was Pleasure Club, and the licence was the first granted on King Street in more than a century.

Now, some four years on, the local venue operator with a diverse portfolio of pubs, bars and restaurants including The Duke Of Enmore, Bistro Grenier, The Old Fitz and Odd Culture, is about to do it all again. However this time, they’ve set their eyes on the CBD for not one, but a double-play of two new venues in the city's beating suit-and-tie district.

The expansion feels somewhat timely, what with Sydney’s nightlife ecosystem gradually shifting again. Following the rollback of its 12-year strong lockout laws and the introduction of the Government’s vibrancy reforms, the state has been slowly rebuilding what’s left of its late-night economy. As of January this year, more than 520 venues across NSW are operating under extended trading hours.

Even so, a 4am licence remains rare territory in Sydney, particularly outside casinos.

However, recent initiatives, particularly in Special Entertainment Precincts, have made it easier for venues to obtain them. For example, bars and restaurants in the Sydney CBD, under the new reforms, can operate until the early hours of the morning, so long as they’re providing entertainment (but there’s still an onus on operators to demonstrate a clear cultural and commercial case for doing so).

Odd Culture’s two new venues mark the group’s very first foray into official Sydney CBD territory (bar its theatre-meets-pub cusp The Old Fitz in Woolloomolloo)—an underground daiquiri bar and discotheque, as well as a neighbourhood osteria.

“Creatively, we’ve approached this in the exact way we would for neighbourhood-focused venues,” Rebecca Lines, CEO of Odd Culture Group tells Urban List.

“We spent plenty of time thinking about what the space should look like, what it should feel like, and how we want people to feel when they experience it. Commercially we’ve done a lot of
consumer research. We recognise we’re entering a tough market, we’ll do our best to make this a
place that brings value to the CBD.”

The upcoming locations join a small group of 4am licensed venues for late-night dining and drinks, including Soda Factory, Zaffi on Little Hunter Street (home to table-dancing) and Chuck Trailers.

“Sydney has spent a long time talking about what it lost. A 4am licence shifts that conversation to
what we can build,” notes Rebecca.

“If I’m honest, Sydney has felt a little boring at night, which for a global city is pretty sad. You’d have dinner, maybe a post-dinner drink, and then the energy would taper off. What’s been missing isn’t just later trading hours, it’s the ability for a night to evolve naturally. To move from restaurant to bar to dance floor without feeling like the city is closing down on you.”

She goes on to explain that a 4am licence creates space for hospitality to be layered and considered, with venues able to genuinely contribute to Sydney’s cultural and night-time economy, adding “when a venue trades until 4am, it attracts a broader mix of people: industry, creatives, hospitality and shift workers and international visitors”.

“Late-night venues are undoubtedly essential in making Sydney a true global city,” she points out.

“Our nightlife has taken hit after hit in the last decade and a half so this is our contribution to the repair and growth of Sydney’s nightlife culture. We want this to feel elastic, somewhere that people can slide in after work for a cocktail and snack, or roll into late night for live performances and late-night dancing.”

On paper, the two upcoming venues really don’t miss. Its underground adjacent is said to be taking some inspiration from Paradise Garage in New York, a members-only nightclub on King Street that saw resident DJ Larry Levan leading the decks between the years of 1977 and 1987. Levan himself drew upon the ever-influential David Mancuso’s loft parties from the 1970s—an invitation-only dance party at his home. With that knowledge, daiquiri is set to follow naturally but maybe not in the way you quite expect.

As for the neighbourhood osteria next door, its high ceilings and exposed beams called it to be a kind of pitstop between dinner plans. 

We'll keep you updated as more details roll in.

Image credit: Ethan Smart