Surry Hills

Surry Hills is a neighborhood with a strong coffee game. We would recommend spending at least two mornings in this area, engaging in the café equivalent of barhopping. Start your hop at Single O. The café is as dogmatic about its single-origin brews as it is about the quality of its inventive breakfast bowls. Open since 2003, Single O has expanded with two other locations in the city (in the CBD and Carriageworks districts), but we're fond of the original. Not least because the roastery is next door, guaranteeing those beans are fresh—but also because it’s opened a specialty brew bar next door for even more-fastidiously prepared coffee, ideally drunk sitting on the curb outside with the rest of Surry Hills’ bright young early risers. Image courtesy of Tom Ferguson.

Spending a quiet hour browsing the shelves in a bookstore you've happened upon far from home is one of life's little pleasures.

Artificer leaves an impression, even on our most discerning coffee-obsessed friends who could not stop talking about the café after a recent trip Down Under

Trade eggs Benedict for shakshuka speckled with feta and paired with plenty of flatbread to scoop up the spicy sauce with at Four Ate Five.

Surry Hills’ Paris Texas is one of those boutiques that sell a little bit of everything. The brands—Cameo, Barney Cools, Atoir—tend to skew a bit more bohemian and unusual than the labels at a typical boutique, and we love that about this place.

At Reuben Hills the coffee is house-roasted, and the menu favors the Central American flavors the founders fell in love with on coffee-buying trips to the region.

Sydney is one of those cities where locals actually drink in hotel bars. And the Wine Room in Surry Hills’ Dolphin Hotel is just the place for it. Sommelier James Hird is totally plugged into the organic and biodynamic wine scene, so expect fantastic, occasionally funky options. The bites are the salty, cured meats and pickles that go so well with a glass of wine, and a few plates of anchovies and shallots on toast are an ideal stand-in for dinner. The bar itself is alive and buzzing with the friendly Sydneysiders who live in the surrounding neighborhood and, delightfully, treat the Wine Room as their stomping ground.

Surry Hills is one of those impossibly stylish neighborhoods full of chic wine bars and locals who love to drink in them. At first glance, the Winery seems casual enough, with its exposed-brick walls, cabin-style wood-plank ceilings, and plants that seem to be crawling through the cracks at every corner. Perusing the wine list dispels this notion. The Winery takes wine—and food—very seriously. There are more than thirty wines by the glass, with a spotlight on Australian and New Zealand growers. And as far as bottles, prepare yourself for many pages of options. Come with a group, take over a table, and settle in for the night. While the wine is certainly abundant, the relaxed, secret-garden atmosphere makes staying for just one impossible.

Surry Hills is one of those inherently stylish, jaw-droppingly clean Sydney neighborhoods. Nineteenth-century terraces and picture-perfect cafés packed with glowing Sydneysiders sipping velvety flat whites abound. Paramount House Hotel fits right in with this almost-too-good-to-be-true vibe. Every piece of furniture and decorative detail is a celebration of Australia. The unusual, Japanese-style tubs in the bathrooms are carved from Australian timber (with Aesop products perched conveniently on the ledge), beds are made up with pastel Aussie linens, and minibars are teeming with local cheeses and charcuterie. Each guest room is designed to be flooded with light, and between the famous Paramount Coffee Project nestled in the lobby and beloved hotel restaurant Poly—a sister to Ester—Paramount House caters as much to locals as to visitors.