The Cat and Fiddle Hotel

The Cat and Fiddle opened in 1930 as the Star Hotel and picked up its current name in the 1970s. Balmain rock and live music runs through its biography: the pub was a fixture on the pub-rock circuit through the eighties and nineties, hosting emerging Sydney bands upstairs. Veteran hotelier Richard Wynne took on the lease and freehold in mid-2019, stripped out water damage, put in a wood-fired pizza oven and reopened as a gastro-pub. Live music still plays Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The upstairs B&B rooms make it the only Balmain pub with a bed attached.

Dogs are welcome in the front bar, with water bowls set out by the door. It's a heritage two-storey on the main Balmain strip that has never stopped playing music, never given up the live-band posters, and still finds room under the bar for a sleeping dog.