The Bentley Team’s First-Ever Bar Heroes Classic Cocktails and Live Music

Almost immediately after the Bentley duo finished announcing the closure of their eponymous 20-year-old fine diner, they were back introducing Sydney to a pair of soon-to-open CBD venues. First there was Ashe, where Khanh Nguyen’s serving a broadly Southeast Asian menu, and then just next door, the red-lit Vespertine. The latter is a slick cocktail bar, the first for co-owners Nick Hildebrandt and Brent Savage.

Branching into the bar scene brings a whole new crowd to the Bentley world, which is known for dining rooms Ashe, Eleven Barrack, King Clarence and Watermans. They’re used to inviting you in for a proper meal, but Vespertine shakes all that off with no bookings, chef-led cocktails, a short, sharp food menu and music every night of the week.

“We’ve never had a site which has been appropriate for a bar,” says Hildebrandt. “But when this one presented, we had no doubts it could be transformed into something really cool.”

That transformation’s been led by designer Pascale Gomes-McNabb, with a fit-out that is – like at all the Bentley fit-outs she’s done – equal parts functional and striking. A 14-metre brass bar is the centrepiece, with red velvet banquettes wrapping the room and red carpet underfoot. Lighting incorporates the heritage space’s textured sandstone and exposed bricks, using squiggly red LEDs, sconces and a disco ball to set the tone, while acoustics that shift through the space and curtained nooks soften the large room. Up front, find enough space for a group, where it’s “a bit more chilled,” says Hildebrandt. “You can have a conversation, you can hear each other.”

The bar’s namesake drink is the Vesper, and the team has kept it classic: an ice-cold mix of Aussie-made gin, premium vodka and Lillet Blanc, in a Martini glass. If you want to have fun with it, the neon Chartreuse slushie will do the trick, as will the nougat-flavoured Medusa, the fluffy Souffle Fizz and the two-person Baba Au Rhum, a vanilla-laced number utilising Red Mill Rum’s original pour, Grand Marnier and rum baba from Eleven Barrack. Want something quick? Order a blood orange Americano or a Key Lime Marg from the tap. There is, of course, a polished Bentley Group wine list too.

“We’ve obviously got a lot of experience in making food, creating flavours and recipes,” says Hildebrandt. “So the same philosophy goes into the drinks as it does into the food.”

Nguyen’s bar menu arrives at Vespertine’s tables from the Ashe kitchen next door. “It’s a pretty concise menu that covers off on all the bar classics – with a little twist, because obviously it’s coming out of the Ashe kitchen,” says Savage. “So a couple of them have a little bit of an Asian influence as well.”

The prawn toast, for example, is finished with a Caesar dressing and crown of thin-sliced iceberg, a snackier choice than the saucy fried chicken sandwich. There’s a mortadella flatbread, beef tartare (with glossy beef tallow toast), ginger-dressed oysters, and a caviar service complete with crème fraîche and potato gems. The menu is ideal for a stop in, but substantial enough for dinner if you stay for a whole gig. 

The team’s music program doesn’t stick to any one genre, and is in play seven days a week. It’s jazz on Mondays and Tuesdays, before making way for a week of soul and funk musicians and a mix of DJs, and vinyl on Sundays. “We did invest really heavily into the sound system,” says Hildebrandt. “The sound is just incredible – something else.”

Vespertine
350 George Street, Sydney
Access via Angel Place 

Hours:
Mon & Tue 5pm–1am
Wed & Thu 5pm–2am
Fri & Sat 5pm–4am
Sun 5pm–1am

@barvespertine
bentleyrestaurantgroup.com.au/vespertine