Call me precious or sensitive if you must, but I believe there ought to be something special about ordering a cocktail, which is why it’s nice if a bartender can smile or make you feel welcome when ordering one. When I head to the cocktail bar in the Rose of Australia’s back room, however, the bartender is, for want of a better word, brusque – even though I’m the only customer at the counter and he isn’t exactly run off his feet.

The Rose of Australia prides itself on its infused vodkas and so I order the Moscow Mule, which is made with ginger-infused Absolut vodka, sugar, muddled lime and ginger and is topped with ginger beer. The Moscow Mule (named after the offspring of a donkey and a horse due to the ginger beer’s kick) first appeared in the 1940s in the US and doesn’t traditionally have muddled ginger, although it certainly works here – in fact, it’s a cocktail I’d definitely order again and is good value for $14.

I’m joined tonight by a svelte lady friend who’s in town for a few days and my gay wingman, who’s still bitter about the closure of the Imperial Hotel, a notorious gay hangout that used to be up the road. In the hopes of procuring his wingman services I’d told him earlier in the night that the gay clientele may have all moved to The Rose but it quickly becomes apparent that they haven’t.

Instead the crowd here is mixed and seems largely made up of friends and couples who might well be locals. We all sit in the back bar where the lights are a little too bright and the colours, as my svelte lady friend astutely observes, are warm – a lot of red and orange. This passionate colouring might explain why we see a couple going hammer and tong for each other on one of the couches, no doubt reminding my wingman of some scenes he might have witnessed at the Imperial (then again, I’m writing this out of speculation – I myself only went to the Imperial once to keep my wingman happy, and as soon as a large guy put one of his hairy arms around me I freaked out and ran, wondering why it is that I’ve never found a straight bar where women do that to me).

Whereas the Rose’s back room tries hard to look like a cocktail bar, the front bar still has all the trappings of an old fashioned Aussie pub, right down to its tiled walls and horseshoe-shaped bar counter (a bit of trivia: the reason old pubs had horseshoe or circular bar counters was to serve as many drinkers as possible back when the six o’clock swill was enforced. Although we luckily never had prohibition, from 1916 to 1955 NSW pubs had to shut at 6, forcing workers to drink as much as they could beforehand).

But back to reality, in which the couple are still pashing on the sofa and my friends are getting restless. The wingman is disgruntled at the prospect of never having sex again while my lady friend is on a mission to drink in as many bars as possible before leaving Sydney, and so we depart the Rose – leading me to come back the following week during the afternoon.

Flying solo this time, I remain in the front bar and stick with a James Squire Amber Ale ($5.85, although at 5pm I’m told that happy hour has begun and that schooners are at middy prices) and a Rose burger with beer-battered fries ($11.90). The young barmaid who serves me is friendly and seems genuinely warm, negating my experience the other week.

The burger is served within ten minutes and is good – and could have been great if they caramelised the onions, rather than using raw red ones, and declined to put sliced zucchini on it. Other bar meals include nachos ($12.95) and a mezze plate with dips, olives and Turkish bread ($12.50).

Despite the vodka infusions and make-out room out the back, the Rose of Australia’s best feature is its old-fashioned front bar. If I lived nearby I’d definitely make this my local and, as it is, will probably stop in the next time I’m passing through.

Rose of Australia, 1 Swanson Street, Erskineville, NSW 2043. Phone 02 9565 1441

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Now it’s your turn – how do you rate the Rose of Australia pub?

Rose of Australia - Erskineville, 3.2 out of 5 based on 10 ratings

 

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