Bondi is sejuiced by The Bucket List

The weather was so crap during most of December I barely made it to Bondi all month. So, when the sun finally came out on December 30, I convinced Bondi Curmudgeon to go to the Trat for lunch before the sky swallowed the sun again.

We were working our way through tapas – chorizo, meatballs, and a salad of figs, prosciutto and Buffalo milk mozzarella  – when we got the call for an impromptu afternoon drink with a group of Bondi’ites (half of whom now live in Rose Bay) to celebrate pre-New Year’s Eve before Snoop Dogg took over the beach. 

We were to meet at 4pm a pop-up bar called The Bucket List, which had replaced Nick’s Seafood. With a few hours to kill, I headed to the Icebergs to do laps and Bondi Curmudgeon headed home to drop off the car and sit in a dark room for a while.

Last time I was at Nick’s they’d mentioned it had been quiet, but I didn’t realise it had been so quiet they were on the verge of packing it in after what must have been a ten year run.  (I googled Nick’s Bondi for an explanation, but as far as the Internet is concerned it still exists and is a good place for a wedding.)

The Bucket List opened just before Christmas after well-known local, Andy Ruwald, founder of the neighbouring juice bar, Sejuiced, took over the lease. Advertised as a ‘pop-up bar’, Andy originally wanted to call it ‘The Pavilion’ but thinks he’ll keep ‘The Bucket List’. It makes sense considering the bar looks like it has become an instant hit. Dressed in a pink striped shirt and oversized sunnies, he was manning the floor, greeting half the people who came in the door by name, and trying to keep everyone happy. 

We managed to get a prime position outside and asked him a few questions. The first was why we had to stay seated, despite the risk of splinters from the wooden crates that doubled as seats. Licensing laws, apparently. Why The Bucket List? Well, most of the food including the prawns and oysters, and some of the drinks are served in cute yellow buckets. 

The drinks err on the expensive ($120 for a bottle of the cheapest champagne at a time when French champagne is selling like hotcakes for $50 in most bottle shops), which could explain the popularity of the bucket of four Asian beers selling for $20. They were served in ice to make them cold as the demand was so high it almost went from a pop-up bar to the pub with no beer.

If the décor looks temporary that's because it is. Wooden crates, ink drawings on walls, buckets hanging from the ceiling, and French-style deck chairs, will be replaced with the furniture that has been made to order but wasn't ready in time for the holiday rush. They’ll even be palm trees. 

While Nick’s often drew the tourist crowd, the Bucket List has been well and truly embraced by the locals. On the night we were there Bondi royalty included Sneaky Sound System’s Angus McDonald and Channel Nine’s David Gyngell. 

There’s something about The Bucket List that makes it seem like it has always been there. Or maybe it was a case of Bondi had been desperately waiting for someone like Andy to take over the space, and turn it into a funky bar with summer tunes. It reminds me of Potato Head in Bali (without the pool) but don’t ask me to explain why.

It’s in a prime position smack bang in the middle of the beach, which means it can get both the die-hard South Bondi and North Bondi crowds without all the usual posturing that ‘my end of Bondi is better/bigger/more glamorous than your end’. 

Now we can meet in the middle and all have a good time for the rest of summer. Or at least until the furniture and the 'attitude' arrives.


<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/70/1644423/restaurant/Sydney/Bondi-Bondi-Beach/The-Bucket-List-Bondi-Beach"><img alt="The Bucket List on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/logo/1644423/biglogo.gif" style="border:none;width:104px;height:34px" /></a>