First look: The Collective is the Rocks’ hottest new dining hub that opens today

• A brand-new precinct, The Collective, opens at The Rocks today.
• The building used to be The Argyle, one of Sydney’s most emblematic nightclubs.
• Hunter St. Hospitality and Pacific Concepts have transformed the space with five venues.
• READ MORE: The best things to do in Sydney this weekend (April 11-13)

When it was announced that The Argyle was closing last year, it felt like a huge loss to many Sydneysiders. Those who spent many drunken nights out traversing the cobbled laneway of the historic nightclub, anyway. Closing its doors after 17 years, we were left asking, what’s next? We visited the new precinct last night before it officially opens to patrons today, and this is what we found.

The Argyle’s transformation revealed

Gone are the days of the devilish late-night dancefloors and chaotic club nights. In its place, a sleek and sumptuous selection of contemporary spaces has materialised. The space is huge, covering a 1,800 square metre footprint, but each of the three brand-new spaces flows naturally into the next. And the design throughout tastefully blends modern chic style with the buildings history.

Ducking off of Argyle Street on to the cobblestones, you emerge into an elegant sandstone courtyard that oozes European charm. This is The Garden. Careful not to miss the small 20-seat cocktail bar, Tailor Room, that’s tucked away on the right as you enter. With just 24 square metres to work with, everything is done with precision and efficiency and the sophistication bleeds through into the drinks. Rust panelled walls, a striking red marble bar and plush seats make this a great date night spot.

The largest of the new venues is The Dining Room, which stands at the northern side of the courtyard. Spread across two floors, it seats 225 guests in olive-green booths, banquettes and leather chairs around round tables. The building, once a wool and textile store, is huge and the seats match the scale. There may be space for hundreds of diners, but it still feels spacious. There’s room to breathe—even with columns dotted throughout.

If you paid The Argyle a visit or two back in the day, you’ll still recognise most of the building. The structure itself hasn’t changed much, with the DJ booth still looming large overhead as you enter. But everything’s been brushed up. Upstairs, The Lounge is a cool drinking spot with counter seating, inviting plush armchairs and clever lighting. Exactly what you want for a post-dinner, late-night tipple. There’s a quiet sense of drama everywhere you turn.

What’s on the menu?

Each space offers something different. The Garden, The Dining Room and Tailor Room sit alongside two established favourites: contemporary Japanese restaurant Saké and premium steakhouse The Cut Bar & Grill. Adding to the offering, this is what you can expect from the new menus, developed by executive chef Mike Flood, whose resume spans Merivale’s Ivy Precinct, Firedoor, Quay and London restaurants Petrus and Maze by Gordon Ramsay.

The Garden

Stop here for breakfast or lunch from 7am until 6pm. Keep things simple at breakfast with banana bread, sourdough toast or the house granola, or splash out on the blue swimmer crab omelette or steak and eggs with sourdough toast and onion jam. At lunchtime, there are oysters, a wagyu cheeseburger with fries, a fresh garden salad with beetroot and feta or pan-roasted fish of the day, among many other options.

We wanted the menu at The Garden to feel more like an approachable alfresco restaurant than a café—something familiar but with a few polished touches borrowed from next door at The Dining Room. You can sit back in this beautiful leafy courtyard with a Bloody Mary and a crab omelette in the morning, or champagne and seafood as the sun goes down. It’s an easy kind of luxury.

— executive chef, Mike Flood

The Dining Room

At The Dining Room, Flood was assisted by a trio of executive chefs who lead the culinary direction of Rockpool Bar & Grill, Saké, Spice Temple, Bar Patrón and The Cut Bar & Grill, also by Hunter St Hospitality group. Indulgence is the name of the game from the get-go here. Caviar tartlets and wagyu tongue skewers, brined for five days and served with date and tamarind glaze, kick off the menu before a trio of caviar options is presented.

The seafood bar, which you can see at the back of the downstairs restaurant, showcases Moreton Bay bugs which are served chilled with a horseradish ketchup in a punchy take on the classic American cocktail sauce. Or go all-out with a seafood tower (small or large), which presents an impressive selection of oysters, scallop crudo, salmon gravlax and mussels. Meat-eaters are catered for too, with wagyu sirloin or tomahawk, or a ginormous 1kg ribeye steak served on the bone with confit garlic, plus lamb loin, duck breast and the standout Berkshire pork chop served atop homemade smoky-yet-sweet mustard and burnt celeriac purée.

As for drinks, the downstairs Wine Room houses and extensive collection of 500 bottles. The sommelier team is predominantly female, led by Hanna Lesniowski Brugnolli from Rockpool Bar & Grill. They’ve curated an cellar of rare Champagnes, local wines and stories vintages. Cocktails are anchored in seasonality. Leading the lineup are Strawberry, a fruity negroni-style tipple, and Lychee. The latter was our favourite. Roku gin and Haku vodka are blended into a delicate and very drinkable concoction with lychee sake and an acidic verjus.

There are other drinking spots across The Dining Room’s two floors: The Bar on level one is a standalone cocktail space that’s open daily from 4pm, and The Lounge is a more private 60-seat setting tucked away from the buzz of the restaurant.

Tailor Room

This is my favourite space of the three. It’s easy to miss as you enter from Argyle Street, but make sure you don’t! It was originally going to be called Cloakroom, offering a nod to its previous life at The Argyle, but Tailor Room feels far more fitting for the space which used to be part of the textiles storehouse.

The Collective’s Head of Bars, Mael Jego, has honed his craft as some of the finest bars in Paris as well as Melbourne’s Apollo Inn, which is recognised on the World’s 50 Best Bars Discover list. With bar manager Benji Kinoial, they’ve created the Textures cocktail menu.

There are 10 signature cocktails, each inspired by a different fabric and designed to mirror the qualities of their namesakes. Wool was my favourite, both for it’s warming flavour and the drama of its preparation—after mixing the base of the drink, bar tenders place three droplets of smoked oil on to the surface of the cocktail which give the drink its distinctive smoky taste which warms you from the inside. Corduroy is a whisky-based cocktail which is almost savoury in its palate, with quince liqueur and honey, while Denim is a much sweeter option—the ginger vodka piqued my interest but was overpowered by the vanilla, in my opinion. Each drink is served with a coaster made from it’s namesake fabric. Not a single detail has been missed here.

With such a small space, we’ve had to be creative not just in the way we use the room, but in how we build our drinks. We’ve spent over six months perfecting cocktails that are technically complex but streamlined in execution.

— Mael Jego.

Whether you stop for a pre-dinner aperitif or end your evening with a last round of martinis, this intimate and sophisticated space is a must-visit. As is the rest of The Collective. Hunter St Hospitality’s ambitions for the space were big but at first-look, they seem to have pulled it off. It’s am impressive achievement within just a few weeks, and an exciting new chapter for one of Sydney’s most famous nighttime venues

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The Collective

Address: 12-18 Argyle Street, The Rocks.
Opening times:
The Garden & The Dining Room: Sunday-Thursday 7am-12am, Friday and Saturday 7am-1am.
Tailor Room: Sunday-Thursday 4pm-12am, Friday and Saturday 4pm-1am.
Saké and The Cut Bar & Grill: Sunday-Thursday 12pm-9pm, Friday and Saturday 12pm-10pm.

For more information visit thecollectiverocks.com.au

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