Vasco

Words by Theodora Sutcliffe

Address: 421 Cleveland St, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia
Tel: +61 (0)4 0677 5436
Email: max@vascobar.com
Website: view Vasco’s website
Door: Open door
Style: Music bar
Food: Tapas/plates & dishes

Review

You don't have to have tattoos to work at Vasco, but it clearly helps. Rock blares from the jukebox, there's a Fender Stratocaster on the wall, with a sign reading "Unless Your Name's Grohl, Don't Touch the Fucking Guitar, Grazie", Mick Jagger quotes on the walls, cocktail lists scattered over the lampshades, the mirrors and inside old 45 covers, and - yay! - a smoking area out back by the loos.

A shrine to rock favourites of the last four decades, Vasco is a super-cool neighbourhood bar, the antithesis of braces and hat-clad cocktailian spots or shirt-and-closed-toe-shoe CBD poncery, with an Italian edge to it - it is named for the Italian rocker Vasco Rossi.

Drinkswise, the list combines JD and rye-led cocktails with fresh fruit mixes and Italian classics - Negronis, Americanos and their like. The Black Beth, with rye, Cynar and Herbsaint, is well worth a try.