Just finished a dinner at Double Bay, and M and I walk by The Golden Sheaf. So many times I have heard friends rave about this place, so lets check it out – here we go!
Fridays @ The Golden Sheaf Hotel
Assessment Time:11:00PM – 1:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:00AM – 2:00AM (Friday and Saturday)
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.goldensheaf.com.au
Address: 429 New South Head Road, Double Bay, Sydney.
Dress Code / Door Policy:
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free Entry all night
Guestlist: None
Occurence: It’s open every night. Tonights live band act is assumed to be at least every Friday. There is a DJ also on Saturday nights.
Inside: The Golden Sheaf runs over 2 levels. Enter via the bottom level into a hallway. Standard Pub to hold 50 or so people and TAB on the left and pokies room on the right. Walk through the hallway to enter the rear entertainment quarter. It’s a big beer garden and obviously recently renovated. Patio heaters, tables and chairs are everywhere. Floor space of the back end takes up about two thirds of the whole place. On the right rear end corner is the main bar, kitchen and dancefloor to hold about 80 or so people. There is a elevated podium with enough room for a 4 piece band to play. Stairs on the right and walk up to a recently renovated lounge area of about 3 main rooms and another bar, with balcony to look over the beer garden. Walls are decorated with flowery / artsy patterns. You can smell the freshness up here. However in essence the actual dancefloor itself is pretty small in size.
Cloak Room: No cloak room facilities. People who were dancing, simnply dumped their stuff in a big communal pile of jackets and bags at the front of the stage.
Bar: I didn’t buy any drinks tonight. The depth of the line was about 1.5 people deep, so you do have to wait a few minutes.
DJs / Acts: A cover band was playing until midnight – with the lead singer mentioning the crowd to look out for them on the X-Factor next month in August. Well, they hd to be at least decent. After midnight, an assumed resident DJ took over.
Music: (upto midnight) The cover band played a wide genre of songs including rnb, commerical house, classic love songs from the past decades, and pop. There was no mixing here, just songs played from beginning to end in a set. (After midnight) The DJ played a mix of RnB, Commercial House, and Top 40. Yes there was some mixing done up here. The choice of music didn’t really blow me away, and some songs left me standing there wondering why they were chosen. It was a very safe selection, and not really meant to replicate a pumping club atmosphere I suppose. It was however, good enough to get people dancing.
Crowd: One would assume mostly locals, and that’s true. There are also a small component of backpackers here
Entertainment: Tonight it was just the live band and DJ. There are two TVs on the edge of the dancefloor, playing Stephen Chow’s “Kung Fu Hustle” on loop. I have no idea why they have chosen this movie, but its pretty funny.
Atmosphere: On the dancefloor it felt pretty vibrant before midnight while the band was playing. When the DJ decided to rock up, it got a little more dancey, but it wasn’t loud thumping, but loud enough to keep the energy up. Wasn’t packed or dead – it seemed right.
Timeline:
We are probably the best
there was some room in the front corner where we stood, and then we started to dance. It was just a little jig but M decides to just go full out with his bloody popping. Ok, everyone just ends up staring at us in amazement, which is what we wanted anyway. That was easy.
Bad excuses to not give out your number to me
Random: ‘Youre awesome’
James: ‘Yup. Want to hang out again?’
Random: ‘Yup!’
James: ‘Whats your number?’
Random: ‘I dont give my number out to strangers. How about I see you here next week?’
Seriously, its better to say ‘no lets not hang out again, just tonight’, or even the just as bad ‘I have a boyfriend’. Really. “I don’t give my number out” – PUH LEEZE
an inspirational movie for dance
Running out of dance moves, so I look above where the TV is playing “Kung Fu Hustle” starring Hong Kong action star Stephen Chow. Most of it is just all the fight scenes, so there are easily many punches, jumps, hand movements and body shaking dancemoves that were easily replicated and looked pretty good on the dancefloor. Try it sometime my fried.
Arrivederci
Left at 1AM to attend to other appearances. The whole place (with the exception of upstairs) is still busy with people drinking, and dancing on the floor.
Recommendation
I wouldn’t make my way out here for a pure clubbing experience, but if you do find yourself in the area, do check it out for a quick dance and soak yourself in the atmosphere. It’s a very good place for a drink otherwise.
If you were just here for a proper dance – be prepared to only properly have a DJ for 2 hours, and prepare to be bombarded with songs from every genre known to mankind.
The Golden Sheaf Hotel (pure dancefloor component): 2.5/10
The Golden Sheaf Hotel Overall: 7.5/10