One of the recommendations from our Free! Tour guide was to check out the “Secret Bar” scene in Sydney.

Clearly, since these are secret, Matt and I had NOT heard anything about this Sydney cultural gem before we went on the tour. However, our guide recommended a few of the venues and encouraged us to Google and see if there were any other that interested us since they all have themes!

Effing. Awesome.

We wanted to take a break from cheaper touristy food one night, so we actually Grouponed an awesome meal right in the main thoroughfare of the city, and then we decided to check out if there were any of the Secret Bars around… There were! There was actually one right around the corner, called Grandma’s, that I had been particularly eyeing.

Now, these bars are “Secret” because they’re sort of like the old speakeasies… you can’t really tell they’re bars from the outside, you have to know where you’re going and what you’re looking for. Of course, we did not.

Armed with a screenshot from googlemaps of a map (not the building… which would have been smarter), we headed off from dinner to find the bar.

We wandered up and down the street a bit, unable to see any building numbers or anything that looked like a bar.

Then, we spotted it.

No, not a bar.

A gaming store, open at 10:30pm.

We looked at each other with bright, excited eyes, and squeaked “FRIDAY NIGHT MAGIC!!!!”

Yes. We are complete nerds.

We had gone across the entire globe and on a Friday night wandered around Sydney to find a gaming store that was hosting FNM. What. Is. Our. Life.

Anyhow, we barreled in and shopped around a bit (Matt and I each bought a game!) and then after we paid… we asked the guy who rang us up to help us find the bar. Whoops.

Turns out…. it was across the darn street. Heeeere’s what the building looked like:

Yeah so not surprising that we couldn’t find it!

We headed down two flights of stairs and into the tiny, yet awesome bar. It was SUPER dark so photos were difficult… but the decor was super fun old-style pinup and the drink menu was prodigious. We all ordered drinks… and mine and mom’s arrived while we waited for Matt’s. Since he ordered a flaming tiki mug drink. I mean, someone had to, right?

The bartender was incredibly nice to us and helped us pick all of the drinks we’d ordered, and even came back to check on us to ensure that we were having a good time, even though the bar was PACKED and he was rushing around to tend to all of the guests. I definitely was feeling the love where the staff was concerned.

We only stayed for one drink but I HIGHLY recommend checking it out! We had a blast, the drinks were pretty well priced compared to elsewhere in the city, and it’s worth it to get off the beaten path and try out something different for once!