Sporters, Sydney

The Menzies' basement bar 
14 Carrington St, Sydney
Reviewers: Burgs, Blogs, BamBams
Time of review: Lunch

Man Cave ticking all the boxes?

Buried under the Menzies Hotel alongside Wynyard Station, there is a forgotten cave of sorta-treasures. A man-cave. But does it tick all the boxes?

Joe Blogs came about Sporters by chance one day while waiting for his watch to have a new battery fitted. Wandering through Menzies Arcade killing the wait-time, he spotted a window box in the wall. Inside this were three TVs playing various sport, no sound, one on the blink. Next to this a hole-in-the-wall doorway leading into the unknown. It was like out of a horror movie just before a slasher jumps from the entrance and tears you a shiny new chest cavity. Like watching a horror movie, where you know exactly what's coming and can't understand why the soon-to-be-victim proceeds into the kill-zone, Joe Blogs entered.



First investigation with a beer. Team is called in for review



After descending some carpeted stairs, well-worn, he discovered something horrific. Something which chilled him to the bone. An bar with no one in it enjoying it. After a quick snoop around, SPL troops were called in.



Sporters - sport

The small stairway from the Menzies Arcade above quickly opens up to a large room filled with little treasures. Multiple pool tables, dart board(!), pinball machines, couches, bistro and seating, jukebox, sports memorabilia, multiple televisions with multiple sport and music programs, some gambling outlets, and of course, a bar stocking a decent beer range.



Sporters beers


On the beer front, Boags Draught, Kosciuszko Pale Ale, Tooheys New and Extra Dry, James Squires' One Fifty Lashes, Four Wives, Nine Tales, Chancer and Crush, Heineken, Hahn Superdry and XXXX Gold. No Carlton Draught here but for low-end price point comparison, Boags Draught clocked in at $5.50. Kosciuszko was $6.50. Happy Hour is 5-7pm with $5 schooners and Jugs of Extra Dry for $13.50.

So what of the food in this man-cave? Fairly standard pub fare with burger, schnitzel, steak, salt & pepper squid, fish. Every weekday heralds a different $12 lunch special - Monday rump steak, Tuesday chicken schnitzel, Wednesday burger, Thursday steak sanga, Friday fish & chips.



Burger up

On the couple of occasions members of the Sydney Pub List team have attended Sporters, they've opted for the burger. It had been heard from other parties that ordering a burger would result in premature runny egg white goop all over your hands, putting you off egg and animal products for the rest of your life, however on our visits, this was avoided. We the reviewers lucky on these occasions perhaps, or has the chef or cook-up in the kitchen changed? Hopefully the latter. Chips? Fries they is, not too bad either.



Sporters bistro and dining

Back to the horror.... No patrons to enjoy this cave of delights. It seems like a fairly good escape from the real horrors of the office building and CBD rush on the streets above but sadly there doesn't seem to be a lot of uptake on this underground service. Perhaps the days outside on our visits were too good to miss. Would like to see what the place is like on a dreary Winter's day. It seems a bit of a waste to have pinny, pool and darts down here. Darts, people! Please tell us how many pubs/bars in the CBD you can find a dart board. We would like to know. We're betting there ain't many.

While the reviewers ate their burgers and drank their beers they noted the music playing in the bar, which was courtesy of Max. On one occasion the team was treated to the "greatest women in rock top 100", with such songs as "Let's Hear it for the Boy" and "Just a pilot". Pleasant.



Sporters bar

 On the TV front, yes there is a TV in almost every direction you look. Normally these SPL reviewers aren't too keen on this, but in this case, it didn't seem to bother us as much as it would have in somewhere like TV-heaven Royal Hotel, Darlington or downstairs at the Queen Victoria Hotel, Enmore. It's like the TVs are strategically placed "for those people that need to see these things [sport] so they can be assimilated into a normal person's bar world", Burger Bot has suggested. Sports seen on review days included soccer, golf, cycling, triathlon. Also noted on the screens was news, the music channel and keno as previously mentioned, and a John Wayne movie.



Sporters 1970's cans


So does this subterranean bomb-shelter, CBD-escape, hidden man-cave treasure tick all the boxes? It certainly seems to the more we think about it. Daily food specials, reasonable drinks list, happy hours, pinny, jukey, darts, pool, betting, news, sports, sporting memorabilia about the place (signed guernseys/jerseys, surfboard and rowing boat hanging from the ceiling), even a John Wayne movie.... what's missing? At the least, these two things - a) people; b) inviting pub-vibe.

On paper, Sporters looks pretty good. All the positives listed above with not many negatives. Okay, it's missing some windows and sunlight but anything underground would be void of these things. It sits in the realm of bars like Concourse and TC Lounge yet so much better than those, we think. While there is nothing bad about it, we would still choose a handful of other CBD pubs over it. That's because it doesn't feel like a good old fashioned Aussie pub, just a converted basement. The food is fine, the beer fine, everything fine, but it's just not really a pub - more of a side-project of something bigger (The Menzies) designed for tourists staying in the hotel above.

Been here? Your thoughts?

Web: www.sydneymenzieshotel.com.au/sporters-bar-bistro.html