DESCEND INTO A WORLD OF LIVE MUSIC AND PERFORMANCE, EXPERIMENTAL CONCOCTIONS AND FEVER DREAM REVELRY
Odd Culture Group’s much-anticipated basement cocktail bar and live music haunt, Pleasure Club, is now open in Newtown. Descend into a world of live music and performance, experimental concoctions and fever dream revelry from Wednesday to Sunday 4pm-4am. Follow the journey at @alwaysapleasure.club
Find the glowing purple eye on Wilson Street and descend the staircase into a pocket dimension of otherworldly terrain and hues of ethereal, swirling purples. Home to an unmatched late-night entertainment experience and state-of-the-art cocktail lab, Pleasure Club brings something completely unique to the cultural fabric of Newtown and broader Sydney – a place where you can ‘expect the unexpected’.
Pleasure Club is both a 120-seat cutting-edge cocktail bar and entertainment and live music space without any compromise. The crux of the concept explores the duality of pleasure and pain in human experience, creating a sanctuary to experience all things which dwell in between the lines of that relationship. Every corner has something pleasurable to do or engage with – plush booths for good times with friends, nooks and crannies where you can hide away, play some pool, have a go on the 1950s vinyl jukebox, or sit up at the bar and chat with the bartenders.
Nick Zavadszky, Creative Director of OCG, said: “It really will be a different beast depending on the occasion. There will be some heaving and revelrous late nights as well as some pared back, lo-fi shows. We’ve spent a lot of time engineering the journey from evening into late-night, with cues for transitioning to what we call Dark Service around the 11pm mark. You’ll have to experience that one for yourself. At Pleasure Club, you can always expect good service, good drinks, and to be entertained—the path by which you get there, though, may be a wildcard on any given night.”
DRINKS:
Built into the venue is an ambitious state-of-the-art cocktail lab with Sam Kirk pioneering the venue’s bespoke and expert cocktail program as Creative Beverage Lead and General Manager (Jacksons On George, The Coldroom – El Pequeño Bar, et. al.).
The drinks centre around a seasonal cocktail program coined ‘A Pleasure Club Story’ that will change cyclically, and may see different creative collaborators come on board. Hinting at the venue’s conceptual roots which plays on themes veering between philosophy and dream-like narratives, each cocktail story will explore a different facet of experience and phenomena—bringing to life these concepts through beverage design, as well as entertainment and venue curation.
Leading international bar world figure, Matt Whiley (Re, ex-Scout, et. al.) has collaborated on Pleasure Club’s debut story, ‘Nostalgia Machine’, where he and Kirk have honed in on the aspects of pleasure and pain in the experience of Nostalgia. The multisensory and immersive cocktail list will replicate nostalgic stimuli and evoke visceral memories of growing up in Australia through modern cocktail techniques, distillates and infusions.
Kirk said, “The drinks are made seriously but are approached in a cheeky, light-hearted way and are made to challenge your senses. We have had a lot of fun going off the beaten track and trying unconventional methods to achieve the right result. We’re not afraid to get experimental and do what it takes to evoke the right sensory experience, and have spent a lot of time playing with ingredients you’d never really expect.”
The Pleasure Club story cocktails are light and easy drinking, and will transport you back to growing up in the 90s or 00s. Think ‘Passion Pop’, ‘Vegemite’, ‘Chicken Parm’, ‘Cherry Ripe’, ‘Mr Whippy’, ‘Cheese TV’ and ‘Sex Wax’. Full menu with details and ingredients here.
The dark service menu that comes into play around 11pm each night won’t compromise on any of the venue’s signature offerings, but instead will feature additional spins on classics—new and rotating concoctions that will allow Kirk and his bar team to experiment more. The wider beverage program has been curated by Jordan Blackman, OCG’s Group Beverage Manager.
FOOD:
The food list is just four hot dogs exceptionally put together by OCG’s executive chef, James MacDonald – a high-quality take on dive-bar-esque food and an American spin on the cravings you have for a late-night kebab after some great drinks. There are two types of hot dogs on Martin’s potato buns to choose from, one made with LP’s franks and one with Suzy Spoon dogs for vegans, with the option to go Deluxe with both which adds frites, kraut, mustard.
ENTERTAINMENT:
The entertainment experience curated by the group’s Entertainment Manager, Sabrina Medcalf, adds further dimension to the notion of ‘live entertainment’ beyond the ordinary. The intention is for every guest to connect with the raw, untamed essence of the venue’s diverse entertainment offerings – from the simplicity of a solo act to well known musicians deconstructing their albums with an acoustic guitar, psychedelic rock explosion, neo soul, mystique, blues, New Orleans grit, live theatre and performance, audience interaction, and lots and lots of surprises thrown in.
Medcalf said, “Crafting the entertainment experience at Pleasure Club has felt akin to curating the art inside a grand museum. Art defies convention (or at least the best art should) – It’s immersive, experimental, subjective, confronting and stirs something in you which is everything the Pleasure Club entertainment bill seeks to offer. Surrender to your primal instincts, embrace the allure of sin, and revel in the celebration of the unique and unconventional. When that curtain opens, expect the unexpected.”
Odd Culture Group are committed to providing free entertainment that is open to all which also engages the independent artist community and invests in the careers of local and passionate creatives. Lineups will be announced monthly through Pleasure Club’s socials with individual nightly bills shared regularly, but there will also be many secret shows and surprise announcements for rare and special gigs that will be peppered into the programming.
Zavadszky said, “I think everyone is realising how important the arts are in our lives, and that experiences are more valuable than conventional transactions of product. They engage with our senses in ways which are more profound and introducing this diversified offering as a kind of ‘new norm’ is really levelling up the industry for the better.”
Pleasure Club is the place you can go any time of the night, and the drinks are great, the staff know their shit, the vibe is comfortable and you feel safe, and when that curtain opens, you just don’t know what’s going to happen next, but you know it’s going to be good.
OPENING WEEKEND LINE-UP:
FRIDAY 23RD FEB
- FRANK SULTANA
- GOLDEN SCISSOR PUPPETS
- AFTER 11PM – DANE BLACKLOCK & THE PREACHER’S DAUGHTER, DJ CIARA
SATURDAY 24TH FEB
- CAPOCCI’S KINGS OF RHYTHM
- AFTER 11PM – LARGE MIRAGE, DJ BASCHOE
SUNDAY 25TH FEB
- THE DARK HORSE
- AFTER 11PM – PORCELAIN ALICE, DJ KALI
PLEASURE CLUB
6 Wilson Street, Newtown NSW 2042
IG: @alwaysapleasure.club
https://alwaysapleasure.club/
https://oddculture.group/