Bar News

Pubs and Clubs Magazine
November 2007

From Old English Style Pubs, to Up market bars, one hat restaurants and even Toss the Boss, Paddington is a playground for locals and trendsetters alike. Whether you’re unwinding with a cocktail after a hard day’s shopping, or popping in on your way to the SCG or Football stadium Paddo has something for everyone.
Four In Hand: Tucked away in the backstreets of Paddington, Four In Hand is best known for its Sunday evening Toss the Boss from 6-7pm. You call heads or tails and if you win, your drink is free. Nice. It also prides itself on having a great atmosphere for watching sport. This might have something to do with the fact that for all Australian Super 14 games, Rugby Union test matches, League test matches, State of Origin games and Sydney Swans games, free beer is served until the first point is scored. It’s a very good way to get everyone warmed up. Prime position is one of the stools surrounding the polished wooden bar on the three sides- it’s the kind of place you’re likely to see father and son enjoying a beer together. But it also caters to the cocktail drinking crowd. And if it’s a delicious meal you’re after, expect something a bit more up market than your basic pub grub. Headed up by award wining chef Colin Fassnidge, the adjoining Dining room, a French provincial bistro, takes its food very seriously. So seriously in fact that it’s just been awarded one Hat in the 2008 Good Food Guide.

Kate Carroll

Sydney Magazine-Bars

August 2007

Fancy a drink but your friends are busy? You'll feel at ease going solo at these watering holes.

This folksy little tavern ticks all the boxes. Easy going atmosphere? Unpretenious crowd? Yes and yes. Hop onto a timber stool at the judging bar and enjoy some old-school pub geniality. There are standard beers on tap and boutique variteies such as little creatures Pale Ale and Black Wattle Superior (each $6.50)by the bottle. Among the warmth, chatter and ale, the solo drinker is well at ease.

Joel Meares

Good Living Reviews The Four In Hand Bar

Tucked away in the back streets of Paddington, a low-key local welcomes all.

They say one in the hand is worth two in the bush. But what of Paddington's Four in Hand? Surely this is a bar where your odds are quadrupled, not least because there's a Toss the Boss challenge from 6 to 7pm every Sunday.

A neighbourhood local with all the charm of an English pub, the Four in Hand completes the Empire associations with its polished timber bar, quirky locals and televisions screening the footy. It is friendly and unassuming, the type of pub to guzzle a bloody mary on a Sunday afternoon without so much as a raised eyebrow.
But half the fun comes from remembering how to find the pub at the bottom of the hill.
A maze of lanes, tree-lined streets and crumbling footpaths, Paddington is not an easy suburb to navigate without the benefit of local knowledge.
It's always a gamble, guessing which streets will be one-way and hoping the next right-hand turn will send us cascading down a hill towards "the Four". And if your last visit was in the middle of a drunken Anzac Day two-up fest, the odds are even longer.

It's hardly fair to judge a watering hole through beer-goggled eyes but there are only fond (albeit fuzzy) memories of the Four in Hand. It is one of Paddington's gems, a pub that has remained true to its neighbourhood origins, resisting the switch to stainless steel coldness in favour of timber and black-and-white tiled walls.
The bar juts out into the centre with staff serving the bar flies from three sides. You can happily pull up a stool at the bar and not feel obliged to move. But don't try this when the striped-shirt Paddos flock for a pre-rugger tipple or a Toss the Boss session. In their efforts to get sloshed, you might get splashed.

The Four in Hand welcomes oldies and yuppies alike. It's an eastern suburbs stalwart, a bar where dads and sons drink and cheer the footy, but a pram wouldn't be out of the question, especially next door in the posh-nosh restaurant.

As we order nibblies, a mezze plate ($12) and chips with aioli ($6) to munch at the bar, the classic weekend lunchers descend - squeaky clean in crisp shirts, ironed jeans and unscuffed sneakers.
In this low-key place you can mingle with the locals and feel right at home. The poker machines are tucked away and there is a handful of high tables for smokers between the front bar and the back lounge.

When it is heaving, you're shoulder to shoulder with tycoons and imports, but you can't lose control, as the Four in Hand favours a neighbourly vow of silence well before midnight.

Clara Iaccarino
April 10, 2007
Sydney Moring Herald
Good Living