Bars open, and bars close — but plenty of bars keep on keeping on.
In this Sydney-focused newsletter:
- How losing focus on then details saw a sales dip, and how they fixed it;
- the reason behind Apollonia’s thunderbolt ritual;
- how tough economic times can encourage creativity in bars;
- a new Sydney bar in an old favourite space opens Thursday;
- your last chance to get some of the best drinks in Canberra;
- and plenty more.
Your chance to nominate in the 2026 Drinks 100 Australia Awards is now — nominations close tomorrow, Tuesday 31 March. The Drinks 100 Australia celebrates the creative and delicious work of the distillers, operators, bartenders, communicators, designers, and ambassadors who make the Australian scene one of the world’s best.
Apollonia is one of those bars keeping on. The bar, set in the basement of the heritage-listed Hinchcliff House in Sydney’s Circular Quay, marks five years next month — which is no small feat in today’s economy, with rising prices, an alcohol excise that just won’t quit, and what might be a darkening economic landscape looming ahead.
When Apollonia opened in late April 2021, it was one of the new wave of bars that emerged from the pandemic era, riding a rising tide as Sydney punters rushed back into the bars after lockdowns. The bar is named after a character in The Godfather, billed as something of a Sicilian bandit’s drinking den, and was the first bar to open in the House Made Hospitality group’s portfolio.
As Jason Williams, beverage director of House Made Hospitality says in the Q&A below, the bar has stayed true to its concept since opening, and has “that worn-in effect that people a lot of time trying to achieve.”
In the interview below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, Williams talks about what they’ve learned over the last five years, how they turned around a sales dip, and why listening and learning what their guests really want to drink is more important than following bar world trends.
SAM BYGRAVE: How has the bar changed from when you opened to now? Is it pretty much the same concept that you opened with?
JASON WILLIAMS: Yeah, for sure. What has changed though is it smells a bit different. It looks a little bit different. Not on purpose — it’s definitely got that worn-in effect that people spend a lot of time trying to achieve.
When we first opened, we had a table service model in mind, we had larger armchair style chairs. But we changed that within the first few months and put in some more communal tables and high tables. Because in terms of business, we needed to adjust a bit pretty quickly. Since we made that change, there’s a few little systems that have changed behind the scenes, but the guest experience and the concept is 99 percent the same.
SAM BYGRAVE: How has trade changed over the five years? You opened coming out of Covid times, where everyone was very keen to get to a bar.
JASON WILLIAMS: It came out of the gate quite strong, keeping in mind I was still living in Singapore when we actually opened. But in terms of revenue and footfall, it was really strong and we had some great people working here. Alissa Gabriel was the opening bartender across the building.
Two years ago, there was probably a dip, purely looking at numbers and some of the guest feedback that we get from SevenRooms or anecdotally. There was a lesson learned there for us because when we opened this place — pardon the term — but we curated the experience. So we have a signature scent in the candles, the music, the colour palette, the lighting, the interior design, the sections of the menu, the uniform. Everything was done with real intent coming back to the Apollonia concept.
And about two-plus years ago, some of those finer details just got chipped away and diluted a little bit.
SAM BYGRAVE: Why was that?