Dim lighting, piano tunes and broody boozing await here. Grab a Rat Pack Martini or a classic gin and tonic.
If I had a good voice (and I definitely don't), I'd be a chanteuse in a piano bar. Of course I'd sound fabulous and look even better in a cocktail dress, fishnets and crimson lipstick. I'd lie on top of a polished baby grand while a hot piano man banged away at the keys beneath me. And I'd order my gin and tonics by giving the bartender commanding stares. (Hey, it's my fantasy. I can do what I like). But enough of all this; it's clearly not going to happen. After all, I have a terrible singing voice. However, for those who have bought into this whole piano bar scene, there is a Sydney venue that fits the bill. Piano Room.
This place markets itself as a live act venue, supper club and lounge bar. When I visit, it's close to midnight on Friday night. There's a guy with wild blonde hair and a tilted hat (Anton Koritni) giving the piano a funked-up thrashing. Another guy is rapping into a tightly-gripped mic. Everyone else is just concentrating on posing. Oh it's hard work isn't it darling!
I entertain the idea of planting my bottom on the piano top (a-la my daydream), but instead I take a sensible tour of the venue. Dim lighting and shiny black marble give the place a sense of nocturnal mystery. Turquoise carpet and cushy silk lounges provide extra padding. The elevated, glassy view looks straight down over the seedy streets of Kings Cross.
The swanky cocktail list delivers a theme of old-world glamour and classic, broody boozing. It features the sort of stiff drinks you always see poured in old, black-and-white movies. Forget Wet Pussy shots and Sex on the Beach cocktails. Heaven forbid. Piano Room is a dry martini joint. Try a Rat Pack Martini (vodka, Dom Benedictine, orange bitters and flamed orange zest) and follow it up with a Play It Again Sam (gin, creme de mure, watermelon, basil and ruby grapefruit). Then, do your best Ingrid Bergman or Humphrey Bogart impersonation. Go on. You know you want to.
Andrea Tomaz
