We step inside the world of Razz Room
Yes, we had to see what all the fuss was about. Behind a pair of bold red doors sits Sydney’s most talked-about cocktail bar right now, and naturally, we had to take a look.
Sydney’s nightlife has spent years chasing the next big thing. New openings, new concepts, new reasons to leave the house. Yet somehow the city’s most talked-about venue right now is built around something surprisingly simple: dancing, daquiri’s & well, a prawn cocktail…
Tucked beneath York Street, Razz Room feels less like a new bar and more like a place that has always existed. One of those venues people tell stories about long after the night is over.
The experience starts before you’ve even stepped inside. Two bright red heritage doors stand out against the rush of the CBD. Behind them, a staircase pulls you underground as the sound of disco drifts upwards. At the bottom, the city and all of your worries disappear.
You are immediately immersed into a room with burnt orange velvet drapes, low lighting and leather banquettes. To your right, sits an intimate cocktail lounge. To your left, a sunken discotheque anchored by an elevated stage and a large funky disco ball. It feels equal parts gritty and glamorous, nostalgic and completely what Sydney needed at times like now.
The original inspiration is perhaps the most unexpected detail of all.
"Funnily enough, the original spark for Razz Room's creative direction was a fascination with the prawn cocktail"
Not just the dish itself, but what it represented: a kind of unapologetic excess, a playful glamour that has largely disappeared from modern hospitality. Working alongside interior designer and architect Sarah Watt, that idea evolved into a venue that borrows from the past without feeling trapped by it.
Built for letting loose
The details are what make the space sing. The tiger striped burl wood wrapping the front bar immediately catches your eye, grounding the room’s modern meets gritty aesthetic. Then there are the custom booths surrounding the dance floor, designed with wider backs so guests can perch on top and take in the entertainment.
It’s a small detail that says a lot about the venue.
There’s a looseness to Razz Room. A refusal to over-engineer the experience. You’re encouraged to settle in, move around, dance when you feel like it and stay longer than intended while being less restricted by the feeling of too many rules.
What’s on the menu
That same thinking extends to the drinks list. Daiquiris sit firmly at the centre of the menu, championed by Head of Beverage Jordan Blackman as a classic worth revisiting. Like disco itself, the daiquiri never really disappeared. It simply needed the right room to make sense again.
And while the cocktails draw people in, the night evolves far beyond what’s in the glass.
Early evenings belong to the lounge crowd. Dirty Royale Cheeseburgers arrive at tables. Prawn Cocktails are served in delightfully wobbly stemmed coupes. Live music begins to fill the room. The movie scene you found yourself in just keeps getting better.
A Night in the Life of a Razz Room Rattler
The dance floor starts to fill. Conversations become shorter. The music gets louder. Before long, the discotheque is packed with people dancing well into the early hours of 4am.
“I think people really want somewhere to dance. They just want to have fun. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but it really has been a tough decade for hospitality. I think the overwhelmingly positive response to Razz Room shows just how resilient the Sydney nightlife community is – that there is demand for space to go out, drink, dance, and just enjoy the city.”
It’s this natural progression that makes Razz Room feel different. The venue isn’t asking guests to choose between dinner, drinks or dancing. The entire night unfolds in one place.
Perhaps that’s why Sydney has embraced it so quickly.
“I think people really want somewhere to dance,” the team says. “They just want to have fun.”
After spending an evening at Razz Room, it’s hard to argue with that.
Some venues are built around a menu. Others around a drinks program or a design brief. Razz Room is built around a feeling. The feeling that the night might take an unexpected turn. The feeling that nobody is in a rush to leave. The feeling that, for a few hours at least, the outside world can wait.
And honestly, Sydney could use a little more of that.
Written by Bailey Doyle.
