Darlinghurst favourite Shady Pines Saloon is closing

• Shady Pines Saloon, the Darlinghurst speakeasy bar, has announced it will be closing.
• It was Swillhouse hospitality group’s first Sydney venue, opened in 2010.
• The announcement comes just three weeks after the bar’s 15th birthday.
• READ MORE: When one door closes, another opens as The Norfolk will reopen on April 23

It’s been a mainstay of Sydney’s bar scene since it opened in 2010, but Shady Pines Saloon has announced it will close this month. Citing building redevelopment as the reason for its sudden closure, it’s no secret that the hospitality group owners, Swillhouse, have had a…turbulent year, to say the least.

End of an era for Shady Pines

When Shady Pines opened in 2010, it was one of Sydney’s first “real” speakeasies with whiskey apples flowing until the early hours. It quickly became a neighbourhood favourite thanks to its happy hour (we love those here in Sydney) and a program of live country music and other bands providing the soundtrack for many Sydneysiders’s best nights out.

“We opened at the start of Clover Moore’s small bar revolution,” said the team in their announcement, “seizing the moment to create something different – grassroots, cool, from the heart, and maybe the best little bar in the country. It was simple: country music, no natural light, plenty of rye whiskey, finely made cocktails, and, of course, whiskey apples.”

This subterranean drinking hole was dark, cosy and full of life; a great spot for a cosy date night and big night out with friends. It was a recipe for success. But Darlinghurst is undergoing redevelopment with gentrified pubs and boutique hotels popping up all over the precinct.

The building that Shady Pines has called home for the past decade has been swept up in this work, as part of TOGA Group’s Oxford & Foley plan to ‘reimagine Sydney’s iconic Oxford Street’. It’s this redevelopment that’s they name as the reason for their closure, but we suspect there’s a little more to the story.

Swillhouse’s turbulent year

The controversy surrounding Swillhouse is still in the mind of many Sydneysiders. It’s not easy to forget the allegations of drug and alcohol misuse, sexual misconduct and all-round shady behaviour that the Sydney Morning Herald revealed last August. And then Sheryn Omeri, KC, the lawyer who advised victims of Harvey Weinstein, was revealed as the representative for four previous Swillhouse employees. Oof.

Shady Pines isn’t the first Swillhouse venue to close, though. Frankie’s Pizza closed in December 2022 to make way for a new metro station, after a decade of serving slices to night-lifers. There’s an ongoing battle between transforming the city’s tired precincts versus reviving Sydney’s nightlife. And the latter still seems to be losing the fight.

It’s not yet clear what the building’s being turned into, but customers have until Wednesday, April 23 to pay Shady Pines Saloon one last visit before their doors close for good. Go for one last whiskey apple and a boogie for good measure.

Featured image via swillhouse.com.

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