With free live music every night from Wednesday through to Sunday,
Funky Bar (on King St, in Newtown) certainly lives up to it's name. This dimly-lit little venue has recently re-opened with new owners and a fun (if slightly loud) atmosphere, that will draw you in from the street and keep you tapping your feet all night.
The drinks list includes a selection of reasonably-priced-wines and slightly-less-reasonably-priced beers, but the main attraction is the long list of cocktails. These range from the classics (such as the espresso martini, mojito and cosmopolitan) through to some interesting original creations (such as the 'all funked up'). At $16 a pop, these make the bill rack up quickly, but they are superbly made and delivered straight to your table.
The short, but enticing food menu has a focus on tapas style dishes to share, and includes an array of delicious desserts. I ordered from the 'main meals' section and was pleasantly surprised by the size of the servings, which were very generous for this quality of food.
If you're looking for an evening of intimate conversation, I suggest you sit well up the back (away from the band) – or possibly just go somewhere else. But if you're looking for a night of fun, frivolity and fancy-pants drinks, this might just be the venue for you. Especially if you're the spontaneous type – we got a table with no trouble on a Saturday night with no booking.
My only complaint was that all that funky music made me want to boogie down, but there's no room for dancing.
