Double Bay isn’t exactly a place known for being "chill." It’s polished. It’s expensive. But for a long time, Mrs Sippy was the one spot that actually felt like it had a pulse that wasn't just a resting heart rate of a private equity firm.
If you spent any time in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs between 2011 and 2017, you knew Mrs Sippy. It was the place where you’d start with a "quick drink" on a Thursday afternoon and somehow end up ordering three more rounds of espresso martinis while the sun set over Bay Street. It was loud. It was crowded. Honestly, it was a bit chaotic.
Then, it just stopped.
The story of Mrs Sippy Double Bay isn't just about a bar closing down; it’s a case study in how Sydney’s nightlife shifted from the "Golden Mile" vibe of the Cross toward something more manicured, and eventually, how the owners—the Perrottet and Todhunter duo—decided to bet everything on a diving board in Bali instead of a courtyard in Sydney.
Why Mrs Sippy Double Bay Was Actually a Big Deal
People forget how dead Double Bay was before this place opened. In the mid-2000s, the area was nicknamed "Double Day," implying everyone was in bed by 8:00 PM. It was a ghost town of high-end boutiques and empty storefronts.
When Andrew Thomas, Ben May, and the rest of the crew launched Mrs Sippy in the old site of The Bay, they weren't just opening a bar. They were trying to prove that you could bring a "cool" crowd back to the 2028 postcode. It worked.
The design was iconic. You had that massive open-air courtyard, the white-washed walls, and that neon sign that seemed to appear in every single early-Instagram post from that era. It felt like a beach club that had been dropped into the middle of a posh shopping precinct.
The vibe was the product
You didn't go there for a quiet conversation. You went there to be seen. It was the ultimate "see and be seen" spot. On a Saturday night, the line would snake down the street, filled with people who looked like they’d just stepped off a yacht or out of a Mercedes.
It was pretentious? Maybe.
Was it fun? Absolutely.
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The food was surprisingly decent for a "party" bar. We’re talking wood-fired pizzas and honest-to-god good seafood, which helped it bridge the gap between a long lunch spot and a late-night venue. But let’s be real—the revenue was in the vodka sodas.
The Pivot to Bali and the End of an Era
In 2017, the news dropped that Mrs Sippy Double Bay was shutting its doors. People were shocked, but if you looked at the business moves happening behind the scenes, it made total sense.
The owners had their sights set on Seminyak.
They realized that the brand they had built in Sydney—a brand synonymous with summer, cocktails, and high-energy socialising—actually worked better as a massive, world-class beach club in Indonesia than a squeezed-into-a-suburb bar in Australia.
The "Sippy" Legacy in Seminyak
While the Double Bay location is a memory, Mrs Sippy Bali became a behemoth. They took the concept and scaled it up by 1000%. Instead of a courtyard, they got a 5-meter diving tower and the largest saltwater pool on the island.
It’s interesting because you can still see the DNA of the original Double Bay bar in the Bali location. The aesthetic, the music curation, that specific "sophisticated party" energy—it all started on Bay Street.
Back in Sydney, the space didn't stay empty for long. It eventually transitioned into what we now know as The Golden Sheaf’s sibling or various other iterations, but the specific "Sippy" magic was gone. The precinct moved on to places like Casa Merlino or the revamped InterContinental offerings, which are great, but they lack that specific, slightly rowdy edge that the original Sippy had.
What Really Killed the Vibe?
It wasn't just the move to Bali. Sydney's regulatory environment during the mid-2010s was, frankly, a nightmare for venue owners.
- Lockout laws: While Double Bay wasn't in the primary lockout zone, the "vibe shift" across the city was real. People stopped going out as much, or they stayed in their local pockets.
- Residential pressure: As Double Bay became even more gentrified with high-end luxury apartments, the tolerance for loud, thumping bass on a Tuesday night plummeted.
- Competition: The Newport, The Coogee Pavilion, and other massive multi-level venues started sucking the oxygen out of the smaller "destination" bars.
Basically, the era of the "boutique party bar" in Sydney was being squeezed out by the era of the "mega-pub."
Misconceptions About the Closure
There's this rumor that floats around that Mrs Sippy Double Bay went bust.
That is factually incorrect. The venue was actually doing quite well when it closed. The decision to shut down was a strategic exit. The lease was coming to an end, and the owners decided that the capital was better spent expanding the brand globally rather than fighting a losing battle against local council noise complaints and rising Sydney rents.
They walked away while they were still on top. It’s a move most bar owners wish they could make. Instead of watching a venue slowly decay and lose its "cool" factor over a decade, they cut it off at the peak.
The Lessons for Sydney’s Hospitality Scene
Looking back at Mrs Sippy Double Bay today, there are a few things current restaurateurs and bar owners could learn.
First: Lighting and layout matter more than the cocktail menu. You can have the best mixologist in the world, but if your venue doesn't make people feel like they are "somewhere important," they won't come back. Sippy nailed the lighting—it was always golden, always flattering.
Second: Know your audience. They knew they weren't catering to the whole city. They were catering to a very specific, affluent, social-media-savvy demographic. They leaned into it. They didn't try to be "for everyone."
Third: The power of a courtyard. In a city with Sydney's climate, if you have outdoor space, you have a license to print money. The loss of that specific courtyard space was the biggest blow to the local social scene.
Actionable Takeaways for the Modern Socialite
If you’re looking for that Mrs Sippy "feeling" in 2026, you have to look a bit harder, but the spirit lives on in a few specific ways.
1. Chase the owners' new ventures. The team behind Mrs Sippy didn't disappear. If you want that high-octane hospitality, keep an eye on the projects coming out of the Sippy Team or Ben May’s portfolio (like the Manly Wharf Hotel or his other coastal ventures). They tend to keep that same DNA of "good food, better party."
2. Visit the Bali location with a plan. If you’re heading to Seminyak to see what the brand turned into, don't just show up at 3:00 PM and expect a bed. Book ahead. The scale of the Bali venue is massive compared to the intimate Sydney spot, but the Sunday sessions are still the closest thing you’ll get to those old Bay Street afternoons.
3. Explore the "New" Double Bay. The suburb has changed. It's more about fine dining now. If you’re looking for the heirs to the throne, places like Pelicano or the rooftop at the InterContinental offer a similar level of "Eastern Suburbs polish," even if they are a bit more restrained than Sippy ever was.
4. Check the archives. Honestly, if you're a designer or looking to open a space, go back and look at the architectural photography of the original Mrs Sippy. The way they used white space and natural light is still a masterclass in venue design that hasn't really been topped in the area since.
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Mrs Sippy Double Bay was a moment in time. It represented a specific era of Sydney nightlife—post-recession, pre-pandemic—where the goal was simply to have a drink in the sun with your friends and pretend, for a few hours, that you were in the Mediterranean. It’s gone, but the fact that people are still searching for it and talking about it years later tells you everything you need to know about how well they executed that vision.
The courtyard might be different now, and the neon sign might be off, but the blueprint they created for a successful Sydney bar is still being followed by every new opening from Bondi to Barangaroo.
Next Steps for You
- Audit the Current Scene: Head to Double Bay on a Thursday night to see how the energy has shifted toward "quiet luxury" compared to the Sippy era.
- Plan the Bali Trip: If you truly miss the brand, the Seminyak location is the only place to get the authentic experience now.
- Follow the Founders: Keep tabs on the "Sippy Team" for their next Australian move, as rumors of a domestic return in some form never quite die down.