The Colombian Hotel, Sydney, Australia

Designer: SJB Interiors, 2002

Is anyone familiar with the lyrics to Barry Manilow’s composition ‘Copacabana’? The Colombian Hotel with its South American influenced décor is that song come to life, especially when one looks around at the clientele of this enormously popular mixed gay and straight pub and remembers the central characters are Lola, a showgirl, Tony a handsome barman and Rico, a smooth lothario. To create one of Sydney’s most grooving pubs, SJB Interiors took an art deco former bank on the main street in Darlinghurst and transformed it into a two storey pub, lounge and dance club in a cocktail of two parts Latin American tropical, one part Native Indian tribal iconography with a dash of glamour graffiti. On the ground floor the asphalt jungle meets the rainforest in a lush palm tree and toucan wall mural; stools covered in patterned vinyl snakeskin that could be anacondas in another life; and geometric ironbark wood high tables with a hint of Aztec styling.

A huge illuminated fibreglass mask on the staircase landing atmospherically links the two main bar areas and leads from the open airey ground floor of Tarzan’s domain, upstairs to the lounge where Scarface's den is decorated with warm chocolate, honey and russet tones matched with rich leather sofas, armchairs, pouffes and shag-pile carpet. These two distinctly different zones make The Colombian Hotel two venues in one – the ground floor is lighter, more casual and pubby with flat screen television monitors showing music videos, and on the first floor, it is darker, cosier and intimate with a dance floor. Do not go in the evening expecting a quiet drink because it is regularly full to the rafters, in no short part due to the hip interiors and its location in one of Sydney’s loud and lively entertainment hubs.

Photographer: Jonny Valian