Empire Hotel

After a long 14-​hour flight from California I arrived in Sydney at 7:30am on a Sunday morning. My GF and I had hotel reservations in King’s Cross and her flight had been cancelled and rescheduled for the next day, so I made my way out to KC to get the hotel check-​in done. I arrived around 10am; check-​in time at our hotel was noon so I had a couple of hours to kill. The hotel stored my luggage for me and I set out on a leisurely Sunday morning exploration of King’s Cross.
After a bit of seriously jet-​lagged, zoned-​out strolling I noticed on a corner an enclosed patio area open to the street, empty but beckoning. It was attached to the Empire Hotel, an historic-​looking building with a very cool art-​deco façade. I crossed the street and walked in and met bartender Albert, who kindly sat me down and gave me a sample tour of all the Australian beers the Empire had on tap. All were fantastic; Australia is a kind of beer paradise if you’re a golden lager fan like me. I made my choice and retired to the patio with my pint to relax and soak up the vibe of Sunday morning King’s Cross street life.
Over the next couple of hours (and pints) I met several colorful characters on the patio, notably well-​dressed long-​time KC local Tim, who was in the Australian Army and was preparing to deploy back to Afghanistan in a couple of days. Tim filled me in on the history of King’s Cross, which has through the decades been Sydney’s bohemian zone, red-​light district, gay-​pride zone, and seedy all-​night party bar destination. It was easy to see «The Cross» as it’s called was currently in transition, undergoing a steady gentrification as befits its gorgeous physical setting amid historic architecture and streets lined with mature shade trees.
Around noon I made my way back to our hotel to secure our room and a well-​deserved nap, happy to have been so well-​received by the friendly Australians at the Empire Hotel and looking forward to our Sydney adventure that was soon to begin.

Les Girls was the first strip club in Kings Cross. So in a way this historic building has a lot to equally blame and thank for. When the Empire opened up in the abandoned art deco building it was the first of a growing trend for «normal» drinking establishments in an area that previously had only seedy horrible pubs, seedy horrible nightclubs and seedy horrible strip clubs.
The ground level bar is prime freak-​i-​mean-​people– watching territory, with massive bay windows to watch people fight, get arrested, and fall over from. There are also big screens and cheap drinks for sports. Upstairs has also been redecorated and is looking pretty funky these days with bright furniture and textured wallpaper– and given that this is the heart of backpacker territory it’s all pretty clean and un-​vomitty! (I live in Bondi, I associate backpackers with puke). I haven’t ventured into the Fake Club but the Empire is a fun place to grab a super-​cheap drink & shake yaw groove thang.