First Look: It’s Daiquiris, Dips and Disco at Razz Room, the Odd Culture Team’s First CBD Venture

When Odd Culture’s Jordan Blackman thinks of disco, he admits he pictures his mum’s record collection – “but that’s not the exact sort of disco we’ll be rocking with at Razz Room”. Instead, the group’s new bar – which opens tonight – takes inspiration from New York’s pioneering 1970s nightclubs, such as underground queer club Paradise Garage and the infamous Studio 54.

Razz Room is the first CBD bar from Odd Culture, the group behind The Old Fitz, The Duke of Enmore, and the eponymous inner-west beer bar. In fact, it’s the team’s first new venue since Pleasure Club opened in 2024 – but it’ll soon be joined by a for now hush-hush osteria next door.

As well as disco, Razz Room is all about the Daiquiri. “It’s long overdue a comeback,” says Blackman, the group’s beverage manager. “It’s similar to the Margarita – [they’re] both fun and approachable, good times, party vibes.”

Daiquiris lend themselves to riffs, and the Razz Room drinks menu features a Dirty Daiquiri – a nod to the Dirty Martini with white rum, smoky mezcal and olive brine – and an off-menu Nuclear Daiquiri, which “is kind of everything turned up to 11”, according to Blackman. The signature Razz Daquiri swaps lime for pomelo and is made with a regal shake, adding a whole citrus peel to the shaker. There are also “Snaquiris”, in yuzu sake and coco mango flavours; throwbacks like the Pavlova Fruit Tingle cocktail and Sex on the Beach slushie; and the Larry Levan, a mezcal, tequila, champagne and orange blossom number named after Paradise Garage’s revered resident DJ.

There are a lot of hot happy hours in Sydney, but Razz Room’s new Velvet Hour is set to be one of the best. From 4pm until 6pm every day, the team will serve up Daiquiris – Classic, Dirty and Strawberry – for $13, beers for $7 and wines for $10. The Velvet Hour offering pairs Daiquiris with “dippy things” like a prawn cocktail; French onion dip with crinkle-cut chips; dippy eggs with soldiers and caviar; and the bar’s hero Dirty Royale Cheeseburger, discounted to $16.

For group culinary director Tony Gibson, the ’70s disco theme presented a unique challenge. “It’s very hard to find a food inspiration, because nobody was eating food at the Paradise Garage or Studio 54,” he says. “They were all over the place in the ’70s – I think taking too much acid. It’s been exciting to [distil] it into something that [reflects] today’s flavours, while still staying true to the fun and decadent nature of the ’70s.”

Gibson has managed this by leaning into kitsch – and cheese.

The late-night menu (the kitchen doesn’t close until the venue does) includes the Cheese Dream Toastie, which is made with a fondue-like filling. Gibson describes it as “a double-decker Welsh rarebit toastie” or a “1970s croque monsieur”.

He circled back to fondue – “everyone was dipping things in cheese sauce in the ’70s” – for the bar’s signature cheeseburger, which is packed with cheese, pickles, mustard, ketchup; cut in half; and plonked on a rich cheese fondue.

Another chunk of the menu focuses on the very ’70s phenomenon of “food on sticks”, with the pork meatballs and General’s Chicken (“crunchy and sticky with a little spice”) both served skewered.

The venue, designed by Sarah Watt of Studio Vista (Ragazzi, Bar Copains, Palazzo Salato), is divided between an upper bar and a sunken dance floor lined with banquette seating. Early in the night, it’ll be quiet enough to chat, with tables on the dance floor. DJs and live performers take over from 7pm and, later in the night, the tables are removed and the dancing kicks off until 3am or 4am.

“It’s something a lot of my mates have asked me before: ‘Where do we go to just have a dance?’ And there’s not too much. You’ve got one extreme or the other, [but] nothing in between,” Blackman says. With Razz Room, he intends to fill that gap between cocktail bar and nightclub.

Daiquiris, dance floors and dippy bits. Sydney’s suddenly feeling disco-ready.

Razz Room
18–20 York Street, Sydney
(02) 8317 3057

Hours:
Sun to Wed 4pm–3am
Thu to Sat 4pm–4am

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