Door Knock

Review

Door Knock is perhaps best described as a cosy venue where one can be transported to wherever in the world you want to be, with access to the venue being down quite a long hallway, it's quite a transformative place, that doesn't really feel like Sydney anymore. Occupying an underground space off Pitt St in Sydney's CBD, Door Knock harkens back to speakeasies of yesteryear. Once you find the door with the aptly appropriate pineapple (a symbol of hospitality), you'll be greeted and welcomed with great cocktails and an appetising food menu.

Taking over the space from a former Scandinavian restaurant, the venue is warming and homely with lots of colour, a lounge, booth seating along the venue and a fireplace. Playing a mix of hip hop, pop, classic 80s with less of a theme and just playing crowd pleasers. The bar is the centrepiece here, with the focus on cocktails and wine, but is complemented by a delicious short food menu from chef Voltaire Silva.

Natalie Ng, Justin Best and Jono Carr have teamed up to deliver cocktails based on their obsessions and flavours. The menus for both food and drink are constantly changing, depending on seasonal ingredients and the wine list is also no exception at Door Knock, with owner Natalie Ng creating a list that focuses on natural and biodynamic wines as well as orange wines. The venue also features an ample list of sherry and fortified wines.

Door Knock doesn't have a single focus per se when it comes to drinks; here, the idea behind the drinks offering is to provide a solid all around bar, without one single category being featured heavily. Instead, you'll find gin, vodka, tequila, rum and whisky cocktails, the owners choosing to not be limited by any constraints. The cocktail list features the all the well-known classic spirits, heralded by ingredients the owners and staff love, that they want to share with people. The venue isn't restricted by what they can and can't do, meaning if they believe a drink will be appreciated by customers, they're happy to offer the weird and wonderful. For example, the current offering has a cocktail featuring sherry that has been sous vide with pineapple skins.

The entire venue offers table service, meaning you can grab a seat at the bar or have drinks and food brought to you no matter where you sit, which also means no lining up at the bar for drinks and risk getting bumped on your way back to your table, or worse, losing your spot. Not having to get up and go to the bar for a drink is a small pleasure. With a capacity of 90, the large venue never feels quite jam packed with no more than two deep at the bar.