Monica is a fun, airy, light-filled 200-seat hotel meeting place that blends inside and outside beautifully.
It’s quite a thing to watch a storm blowing in from the rooftop of The Olympia, Paddington’s newest hotel. It’s pretty hard to argue with any venue, actually, that serves views of lightning dancing across the East Sydney skyline with a side of mango daiquiris.
Some readers may remember this beautiful old art deco picture house as the Grand Pacific Blue Room (in 2003, this masthead described it as “crusty but cool”). Later still, it was an Italian(ish) pop-up, Don Peppino’s. Now it’s what real estate agents might call a hotel/lifestyle “experience precinct”.
There are four eating and drinking options at the hotel, three of which (The Palomar, The Mulwray and Jacob the Angel) are by London-based Studio Paskin, run by DJ-turned-restaurateur Layo Paskin and his sister Zoe. Monica rooftop bar, which is where I’m enjoying that lightning storm, is a fun, airy, light-filled 200-seat space conceptualised by hospitality company Ennismore. It blends inside and outside beautifully.
If Ace Hotel feels New York, The Olympia feels LA. Or at least, an artist’s impression of something that feels LA. It definitely gives the impression of being designed for content “moments”. There’s your neon sign (“Call for a margarita”) set up above plush armchairs and a rotary phone sitting on top of a Slim Aarons coffee table book. I’m going to blame the time of year for the amount of resortwear on show (I won’t say White Lotus brought to you by Shein, but it’s close) with the exception of the one gentleman in head-to-toe Ed Hardy.
The cocktail offering, from drinks boss Roean Patawaran, is planted firmly in the easy-drinking category. There’s plenty going on in the glass (check the Bird Streets, mixing blended scotch, peach liqueur, lemon, honey, ginger and beeswax care of beekeeper to the stars, Tim Malfroy) but the drinks themselves are designed for conversational fun on a roof, not for hunkering down alone in a dimly lit booth.
Beers, like Yulli’s easy-drinking Seabass, veer live and local with a few internationals in the mix (I’m sorely tempted to come back for a Guinness in the cooler months). And while the wines-by-the-glass selection is a little underwhelming, I imagine the $175 mimosa service (a bottle of champagne and a selection of fresh pressed juices, designed to serve three to four people) goes down very well on a balmy Sunday. Especially with a serve of culinary director Mitch Orr’s lightly devilled crab served with Jatz crackers (the cracker is one of Orr’s signature flexes). Or maybe the crisp-fried rice cakes painted with wasabi and finished with scarlet slices of soy-cured tuna.
I’d suggest, if you’re here with friends and intending to share snacks, to think twice about the cold noodles. Not because they’re not delicious – the wheat noodles are dressed in ponzu and sesame, garnished in green onion and hidden under an avalanche of fried shallots – but because they’re about the worst sharing food you could ever place on a bar menu. Which kind of makes me love them more, if only for Orr’s sheer bloodymindedness.
That daiquiri, by the by, mixes white rum, coconut rum, macadamia and wattleseed liqueur with mango, lime juice and mango syrup. Given the slightly changeable nature of this drink (it splits pretty quickly if left untouched), you’ll want to either drink it quickly or use the dehydrated mango garnish as a swizzle stick to keep everyone in the glass firm friends.
If I were a guest of the hotel (the average weekend rate is a little over $700 per night, in case you’re thinking about it), I’d be very happy indeed to order a dry-aged beef burger, a bowl of herbed chips (skin on, thin cut, fried till deeply golden), pull up a seat at one of the crimson and cream-tiled benches and enjoy the view of East Sydney and the CBD. Treat Monica like the hotel bar it is, and be a tourist in your own city.
Three more hotel bars to try
The Lobby, Ace Hotel
Sink into a butter-soft caramel leather banquette, and order a pear and plum spritz with a side of onion rings, or prop up the little bar with a Grifter oatmeal stout and a fried chicken burger.
47-53 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney, acehotel.com
Marble Bar, Hilton Sydney
Fun fact, Cold Chisel posed for the cover of their album Breakfast at Sweethearts in this bar. Built in 1893, it’s one of the most opulent spaces to order a martini in Sydney.
Level B1/488 George Street, Sydney, marblebarsydney.com.au
Dean and Nancy on 22, A by Adina
Buy the ticket, and take a ride to the 22nd floor for a flighty and fanciful cocktail menu offering a King Arthur’s Gimlet and a Dreamweaver Colada.
2 Hunter Street, Sydney, deanandnancyon22.com.au
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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Myffy Rigby is the former editor of the Good Food Guide.
