When The Hook opened in May last year, it delivered a neon-lit mishmash of all the things bar hound David Spanton had fallen in love with over the years. Vintage treasures covered the walls and coloured beer lights hung from the ceiling. Old coasters collaged the wall behind the bar and a wall of oyster shells backdropped a live shucking bar. A lengthy menu of classic cocktails – like a Black Velvet and French 75 – was served by attentive bartenders, and there was a healthy supply of oysters. But The Hook, in its current space, is closing this weekend.

Spanton owns the bar with his wife and business partner Amy Spanton, along with another pair of tiny Kings Cross favourites: Piccolo Bar and Vermuteria. At 180 seats, The Hook is their largest by far.

“We’d love to have made it work, but the signs are there that it’s not going to,” David tells Broadsheet. “We can half-fill this venue, right? That, for us, is great – we can fill it sometimes. But the reality is it’s a big space and the way it’s configured [doesn’t work]. If we reduce the size of the venue [by] half, we are in that comfortable space, where our rents are lower and numbers are more manageable.

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“For us that sweet spot is south of 100. That would work perfectly well. Being a bar that’s focused on drinks, having something so big is difficult when it’s closed up like that.”

The 250-square-metre space has a funky horseshoe bar with a row of velvet booths along a back wall. A grand piano sits in the street-facing window. A third Kings Cross spot was never the couple’s intention, but when they spied the site, they pounced, creating a “little Bermuda Triangle” of bars.

“We love what we do with the piano, with the oysters, with the whiskies. For us it’s a case of getting that space where we can take all the furniture, take the artwork, take the piano and set it back up in something smaller.”

The Spantons are on the hunt for a suitable space, and our money’s on them looking for something close by.

“At the end of it everything’s gotta stand on its own two feet. Piccolo and Vermuteria, they’re getting through things at the moment, but they’ve had more time to [handle] the slow-down in spend, to establish that kind of clientele. We’re planning another Piccolo kind of venue, these are all the things that we want to put our time into.”

The Hook’s final day of service will be Sunday March 23, 2025.