November 26, 2007

Pacific | Australia | Sydney

Drifting on Bondi

By Nicole Cotroneo

Sydney's celebrated beach has a new contender for boutique primacy.

view map

Since 1988, Bondi Beach — Sydney’s famed half-mile crescent that sees 40,000 surfers and sun-worshippers on a single summer day — has been home to Ravesi’s, the city’s first boutique hotel. But now, just in time for high season, the 12-room hipster’s retreat has a new hangout, Drift. Opening Friday, the seaside lounge-bar has white leather daybeds, mirrored banquettes and a travertine, double-sided fireplace. The tapas-style menu offers seasonal oysters “six ways” (one with chardonnay vinegar and trout caviar) plus a “raw spoon bar” (try the wagyu carpaccio –- that’s marbled beef from beer-fed, hand-massaged Japanese cows). Get your cocktails stirred by some of Sydney’s premier mixologists, and take them to the sun deck for poolside chilling and views of Bondi in its nighttime glory.

The star-studded beach, however, can no longer claim the city’s only boutique property. Recently, Sydneysiders welcomed the Diamant, the first luxe boutique hotel to rise in nearly a decade. The 77-room bolthole is set away from the waves, in Potts Point, an up-and-coming hood with a bevy of boho-chic cafes, galleries and shops. Oz-based Eight Hotels plans to turn up the cool factor with another Diamant in February — this one in Canberra, turning the heritage-listed Hotel Acton into the capital’s first five-star boutique hotel.