Jeremy O.
Yelp
The first time I went to Tio's, that neon-lit 'Guatemalan Owl Bar' in Surry Hills, I should have been floored by the moody atmosphere and the hip bartenders that served $5 Tecate cans the right way - that is, rimmed with salt and stuffed with a lime. It was welcomed greedily, of course, as such cerveza always is, but felt perhaps not so revolutionary as it should have been. See, I'd been to the Norfolk a few weeks earlier, and, well... It was more exciting the first time.
The Norfolk isn't a hidden and hyped hole-in-the wall - it's traditional Aussie corner-block pub, complete with a sports bar upon entry and laminated menus on every table. But you're more likely to see the North Sydney Bears battling a NSW Cup rival on the telly in this sports bar than a Gosford dog derby on a TAB-branded plasma, and you're not going to get a reheated guinness pie or a caesar salad. The condiment of choice here is hot sauce, and the food is tailored to suit: particularly good tacos with fresh salsas and tender fillings, American diner specials like chilli fries, sliders and hot wings, and jugs of Michelada - spiced beer with lots of lime and a depth-charge or two of tequila - to wash it down. Smokin'.
A strange twist for a grand old Australian hotel? Perhaps, but then considering what Sydneysiders are digging right now it seems more like an obvious conceit. You can still sit in the beer garden with a schooner and a couple of good mates, and you're not going to get chased out at the strike of 7pm by a waiting queue of young fashionables looking to get drunk somewhere uber-trendy before they go out dancing to whatever you're supposed to dance to nowadays. Or you can sit at the bar, drink Tecates, eat tacos, and feel trendy anyway. The perfect crime.