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| The Town Hall Hotel |
The first pub we visit that is actually on King Street is the Town Hall (or 'townie' to those in the know). Situated next the Newtown railway station, the Town Hall is almost as old as Newtown itself is. According to the locals the town hall is most famous for being open when everything else shuts. We expected that it had more to offer than just that, so, after putting our drinking shoes on, we wandered in.
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| Town Hall Hotel - Going off! |
We were immediately struck by the popularity of the main bar. The place was chockers! We pushed our way to the service area, noticing on the way old photos of the pub and the railway station dating back to early this century and late last century. Our reward at the bar was significant - Cascade Pale Ale on tap! A magnificent and delightful beast as rare as the Tasmanian Tiger itself outside of the Apple Isle. After relishing its cool refreshing taste we looked further around the bottom bar - much the standard fare: pokies, people, photos and beer.
Feeling a bit peckish we wandered up the stairs to the upstairs bar to what really is the gem of the pub - the second floor. From there we managed to secure ourselves a seat overlooking King Street - including Newtown's purple flag just visible on the sign in the photo at the top of this page. A couple of cascades later, and we were really getting into the grove of the place. We moved down past the bar to where we expected to find some decent pub food being served.
And were we in for a treat.
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| Local Town Hall Expert |
We sat down next to one patron who let us know what we were in for. After happily accepting a cascade he blurted out: "Look mate, you'll get a great bloody feed here - Real flash, fair dinkum". Not to question his expert knowledge, we decided to order some tucker for ourselves.
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| Flash Tucker at the Townie |
And indeed it was 'flash'. We would actually go far as to say the Town Hall will provide the best pub food you will find in Sydney. They treat the place like a restaurant. The staff are excellent, and the food superb. We particularly relished the oysters. Hmmmm. And of course the slice of banana cake turned out to be the delightful dessert you see above.
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Where to next in our Newtown odyssey? According to the local expert, the next place to go was the Oxford Tavern. And who were we to question him. |
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Take a break from drinking like the author of this article did - Read why and how in his book Between Drinks: Escape the Routine, Take Control and Join the Clear Thinkers
