Bar Sport in Leichhardt

Bar Sport in Leichhardt

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Posted 2010-08-05 by Francesca Sidotifollow

It's 6:30 in the morning and the regulars are here. The outside tables are crowded with men arguing the latest soccer (sorry, football) game, tradies grabbing a coffee and a ciggie before work and women clad in exercise gear that I suspect never suffers from any sweat.

Bar Sport comes into its own this early. An institution of Leichhardt's Norton Street since 1956, it's a vestige of an earlier era when people got up with the sun. Both fresh and old as the hills, it's the kind of place you need to squeeze in every morning before heading off to confront the daily grind.

My parents used to talk about Bar Sport. Like me, they used to live in Petersham and, like me, Bar Sport became part of their daily existence. It's still a ritual visit every time they have a spare fifteen minutes in the Inner West. I have vague memories of being taken there as kid, and being intimidated by the frankness of a one room café. There's nowhere to run and there's nowhere to hide, and that's how the patrons like it. This is not a place of anonymity. It's a place where your business is communal.

Bar Sport is probably also one of the few surviving examples of what Leichhardt used to be like. Service is often in Italian, and old Italian men sit around and chew the zucchereto (Italian doughnuts filled with custard) and the fat. Chess games are undertaken with utmost concentration and no humour. Families come here, with kids wearing their school uniforms with their socks pulled all the way up. In a city that has a tendency to immerse itself in cliques, Bar Sport remains a mainstay of community. I come here as much for a sense of place as I do for the (great) coffees.

It's also old school. If you like to be overwhelmed by fawning service, this is not the place for you. Also be warned that if you get in the way of the sports on TV, you stand a risk of being yelled at. But if you've been looking for somewhere that's the real deal, then you should give Bar Sport a whirl. I'm there every morning at 6:30. Come and say hello.

Huzzah: The coffee and the company

Bummer: The crowds at certain peak periods. There are only so many chairs in a café the size of your lounge room.

Not for: anyone who drinks tea, hates football or is keen on low fat cakes.

#sport
#food_wine
%wnsydney
158380 - 2023-06-14 15:02:10

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