Back in the swing
Of all the fun experiences you can have over a weekend at the newly refurbished Sofitel Sydney Wentworth Hotel, perhaps the most amusing will happen first, or at least early in the piece. That’s the way it goes for us, anyway.
We’re settling in for Friday afternoon cocktails at the street-side Bar Tilda when our jaunty Italian waiter Michele ambles over to discuss the cocktail list. In itself the list is quite the thing of beauty; in a minute you’ll be sipping something such as a Friday On My Mind ($25), a saucy combination of Los Arcos tequila, passionfruit, honey, curry leaves and lemon.
Or the Hanky Panky ($95), a drink that’s more of an experience than a cocktail. Built on Coates & Co.ʼs ‘Plym-gin’ Plymouth dry gin, Fernet-Branca and Italian sweet vermouth, the Hanky Panky comes with a story — it was created by the world’s first famous female bartender, Ada ‘Coley’ Colemon, at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel London in the early 1900s — and it also comes with the rind of a lemon that Michele rubs on your hand before you drink it. Featuring a rare 1960s-style gin made in Italy, the cocktail is lovely and is also charming.
But it’s not our favourite part of the night. That comes when Michele pushes a glistening cart to our table for a handmade ‘martini experience’. On the trolley are boozy accoutrements: fancy ice, stuffed and Sicilian olives, a collection of shatteringly thin martini glasses, as well as a trolley-full of Archie Rose gin.
And so here we are with Michele mixing us Tilda martinis ($26) of Archie Rose lemon-scented gum gin, Ferrand orange curaçao, Pomelo dry vermouth, ‘eucalyptus-frosted’ lemon sherbet and aromatic pepper, and honestly it is as Mad Man an adventure as you’re going to get in the 2024 post-Me Too era, thank god. We’re here to drink to that. Cin-cin.
The 1960s and indeed late-20th century Sydney is a running theme at the Sofitel, reopened in November after a $70m, 10-month renovation that has seen a tired institution revitalised.
Its property is surely familiar to anyone who has kicked around Sydney for long enough. Personally, I have had several strange and some would say unsuccessful nights here, one attending a Walkleys journalism awards night at which I was nominated for nothing, though it is possible my husband won something; another covering the result of a federal election, in which the Liberals, who always host their election nights here, won government, or maybe they lost. I can’t remember but I recall the ballroom with its monster chandeliers, and drinking at the bar after the speeches. That was fun.
Many others would have attended weddings here, or conferences, though perhaps the Wentworth is best known as the place Diana and Charles danced awkwardly on the ballroom floor on their 1983 Australian tour — she luminous and gorgeous in her fluttering turquoise chiffon evening dress, he irretrievably awful, lugging her across the boards like a chump (please rewatch the footage).
Much of the hotel is heritage listed, thankfully, including its kooky semi-circular shape, the marble in the bathrooms and the ballroom chandeliers. It was opened in 1966, by Qantas, curiously enough, in postwar minimalist style with a modernist interior.
Right through to the 90s it attracted the glamour set including dignitaries lured by the excellence of the location on Phillip St, literally at the top end of town.
The 60s doesn’t really seem like that long ago, but it’s long enough for the Wentworth to be considered one of Sydney’s heritage hotels, and in these more downbeat, troublesome, non-boom times, revisiting that swinging decade most certainly has myriad charms.
The 436 guest rooms and suites are fresh and contemporary, the refit done by interior design studio FK, and the hotel is mercifully devoid of that anxious fustiness that plagues some new venues.
A hospitality partnership between Sofitel and House Made Hospitality to run the onsite restaurants and bars, is inspired. House Made is a booming if slightly under-the-radar group whose venues include Grana, Lana, Hinchcliff House and the Carrington Hotel. They do good work and often inhabit heritage properties, including at Bondi Pavilion, where they run Promenade restaurant.
At the Wentworth, apart from operating Bar Tilda, the group also runs Tilda, the premium onsite restaurant, and the former Garden Court restaurant on level five, which has been remodelled as two spaces: Wentworth Bar and Delta Rue restaurant.
Delta Rue is a happening French-Vietnamese bistro, the Wentworth Bar a charming alfresco space, while Tilda — on the lobby level — is a brasserie-grill, very contemporary, with a fish and steak-focused menu.
Find a list of entrees such as roasted king prawns with tomato butter and curry leaf ($39), and grilled southern calamari with preserved lemon, pancetta and aioli ($34). And for mains, tagliatelle with zucchini, garlic, lemon and chilli ($27); blue-eye trevalla ($57) with a choice of sauce (say, burnt butter and orange, or shellfish emulsion); or a 400g grass-fed scotch fillet with saltbush chimichurri ($69).
The cooking and service are very good and it’s a beautiful space — plush, the decor drawing on the earthy tones of the Australian bush. I’m not sure why exactly, but it feels good.
So, you could find yourself stumbling from martini service to fish and steak at Tilda restaurant, then up to your suite where you may discover it has a glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is all as glamorous and excellent as it sounds. As a Sydney staycation, it’s highly recommended, most especially if you start, Don Draper-style, at cocktail hour.
