My friend Kelly found the disco brunch in a “What’s on Sydney” email and suggested we go. It’s only on once a month and sells out quickly so we booked a few months in advance and were due to go in September. Unfortunately Kelly was super sick so we postponed until the next available date which was November. When I told my friend Liza about it she asked if she could tag along as it was a big birthday for her the week after. I managed to update our booking and the three of us were off to Disco Brunch.

I’ve wanted to go to The Winery bottomless brunch for quite some time. It’s only 25 mins walk from my house and I had been to their sister restaurant Manly Wine earlier in the year and it was fantastic. Disco brunch was definitely a point of difference and was a way of getting me there sooner rather than later, because I love a little disco baby.

Of course I felt the need to look the part so I was dressed in sequins and glow mesh anticipating a brunch filled with boogie fever and disco hits. The downstairs bar and verandah of the Winery had been converted for this once a month special disco brunch and there was a flashing dance floor in front of the bar, mirror balls hanging from the ceiling and a DJ booth set up next to the dance floor.

I arrived slightly early to take a few photos and was shown to a fabulous table with comfortable lounges close to the stairs and the flashing neon dance floor. #winning Straight away I was offered a drink while I waited for my friends to arrive. Glancing towards the bar it was obvious the Winery’s bottomless game was high. The bar was full of Bellinis in glasses and jugs with squirt bottles full of syrup and juice. Unlike Portside they definitely had NOT run of peach juice and offered 3 flavours in Peach, Raspberry and Lychee.

The Winerys bottomless brunch is the longest I’ve been. At 3 hours long there’s no rush. Our waitress explained how the food would come out and how we could flag someone down for drinks, (which we rarely needed to do because they were so on the ball.) No need to tell her this was not our first rodeo. We all decided to go with the classic peach Bellini to start.

The brunch started with a selection of tasty treats. 3 baby cheeses, a soft blue, a Brie and a sharp cheddar served with fig chutney, grapes and biscuits. Aged prosciutto , olives, pickled peppers and marinated eggplant served with grissini

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There was also a couple of dips, hummus and some sort of green dip (which was my favourite) with toasted flatbread. As always there’s never enough bread or biscuits but when we asked the waitress for more it was not a problem, she happily obliged and bought us some.

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The mains were delicious and I could have eaten more of everything. The polenta fries were soft and fluffy on the inside and crisp and crunchy on the outside. The sausage rolls were just as tasty with a crusty outer pastry shell served with a spicy tomato chilli jam.

All of the food was bought out together so we dug in. The gnocchi was next and while not exactly my favourite it paired quite nicely with the roast pumpkin salad.

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And then the drag queens showed up! In subtle Saturday attire they casually made their way to the bar to sip on a selection of Bellinis before doing the rounds of the tables and introducing themselves to the brunchers. My friend Kelly was super excited to meet them. She’s been watching a LOT of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK recently. I really need to take her out more often.

While we were sitting and sipping we noticed absolutely no one was taking advantage of that fantastic flashing floor. CeCe Penistons Finally was playing and while I love this track I would probably consider it now more retro than disco. I wouldn’t normally go up and request a song, I know an awful lot of DJs (you know who you are) and they really hate that. However this was a Disco Day and I was determined to hear something from the 70s.

I made my way to the DJ booth and asked DJ Cuba for some disco. He promptly replied what do you think I’m playing? To which I said early 90s house, so he threw on some ABBA and Liza and I started to dance. Dessert came out then and we quickly made our way back to our table.

Dessert was an assorted pastries and triple choc brownies. I broke a pastry in half and Kelly went up to request Xanadu. A few seconds later she came back to the table with a look of shock on her face. Not only did the DJ not have Xanadu (rookie mistake for a disco DJ) but he had never even heard of Olivia Newton John! *gasp, shock, horror, pearl clutch* 😱

Before we could even take more than a nibble of our dessert a dance competition was announced. Of course this had both Kelly and Liza hustling back to the dance floor, probably to literally do the hustle. I stood nearby to capture the moment. Who would be victorious? In the end Kelly made it into the top 3 giving it her best Ru Paul Drag race moves. Unfortunately she didn’t win and 1st prize was given to a lawyer who had a lot of friends there to cheer her on.

As we made it back to our table last drinks were called and we noticed that our whole plate of dessert had been taken away. As you can imagine we were not impressed. Apparently competing means no dessert for you! A quite word with another waitress and we were back in business with 3 more brownies that had been warmed up and were delicious.

Liza has been to the standard Winery brunch the week before and although the food was the same it was held upstairs, had no DJ, no flashing dance floor and no drag queens. I think it was definitely worth waiting for the Disco Inferno.

Id probably do the 3pm sitting if I were to come back. As much as I loved this brunch they were resetting the tables and pushing us out the door before we could even say espresso martini.

So we headed to Tily Mays for a roady, but that my friends in another story…

A place where nobody dared to go

The love that we came to know

They call it Xanadu

Olivia Newton John

📍 where – 285A Crown St Surry Hills

🌎 www – https://thewinerysurryhills.com.au

🥂🍑 bottomless – Bellinis – peach, raspberry and lychee

💵 how much – $79

🧀🍞🥗 Food – 3 course set menu

⌚️ how long – 3 hours

🗓 when – Saturday and Sunday 11am and 3pm sittings. Disco brunch once a month – Saturday only see website for dates