Big news from a small bar overnight, as the owners behind Burrow Bar in Sydney’s CBD eye its next chapter and share what co-owner Chau Tran describes as some bittersweet news.
The good news? The bar marks its 10 birthday at the start of March. On Sunday 1 March, Burrow Bar will host a party celebrating a decade in the business — having experienced a few Burrow Bar birthdays before, I imagine this will be a large and fun night. I hope you have no need of working the Monday after.
10 years of watering the punters is a massive milestone for any bar, and Burrow Bar has had its challenges along the way. Chau and fellow owner Bryce McDonough actually moved the bar during the lockdown era, from its original home on De Mestre Place to where it now resides on Clarence Street.
And yes — they had to survive a couple of lockdowns as well. A lot of bar operators talk about community, but Chau and Bryce have always backed up the talk with action; during two lockdowns in the pandemic era turned the bar into something of a commissary kitchen, making hundreds of meals for hospo staff who were left without their weekly income.
Okay, so here’s the bad news: the party on the 1st of March will be Burrow Bar’s final service.
At their big 10th birthday party celebration they’ll be passing a ceremonial “flaming pineapple” to tiki popup Lost Luau, run by veteran bartender and rum runner Tom Bulmer, which will operate in the basement space before they refresh and renovate.
Bryce McDonough and Chau Tran at Burrow bar in 2022. Photo: Supplied
“We will keep the space,” Chau says. “[We will] pop up Lost Luau and cross our fingers Bulmer doesn’t burn it down before we can refurb and rebrand all shiny and new.”
You may remember Lost Luau from its summer stint on York Street in the city back in 2017; I wrote about its opening here. And I was a big fan of Bulmer’s takes on the Piña Colada and Jungle Bird — here’s hoping they bring them back, too.
Get a look at the details below for Burrow Bar’s last hurrah — $1 from every drink sold will be donated to the Heart Foundation, in honour of a dear friend of the bar.
See you at the bar on Sunday 1 March.
Where: Basement, 96 Clarence Street, Sydney
Date: Sunday, 1 March
When: From 6pm
