Where the City’s Nights Spin in Vinyl Reverie
By Rafi Mercer
New Listing
The Caterpillar Club is one of Sydney’s most finely tuned listening bars, explore more in our Australia Music Venues guide.
Venue Name: The Caterpillar Club
Address: 92 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Website: swillhouse.com/venues/the-caterpillar-club
Instagram: @thecaterpillarclubsydney
Descending into The Caterpillar Club is like stepping through a portal into sonic warmth. It begins with a staircase tucked behind office façades, the light dimming until you enter a lengthwise bar that breathes like a tube of brown velvet. The glow of amber bulbs reflects off rows of red leather booths, where candles shimmer on tables built low for whispered talk or solo immersion into the next track. Above the bar, shelves run the length of the room, lined with not hundreds, but some 10,000 vinyl records. This vast archive is one of the largest private collections in Australia, each spine a promise of a story waiting to be played.
The space speaks of contradictions folded into design. It is both grand and comfortable, a shrine to sound and a playground for curiosity. The creative team behind Swillhouse, the minds who built Frankie’s, Hubert, Shady Pines and Le Foote, have crafted a basement venue that feels nostalgic yet fresh, cinematic yet lived-in. You sense the lineage of New York speakeasies and 1970s jazz dens, but the language here is distinctly Sydney, rich with leather, wood, and quiet intensity.
Sound is sacred in this room. DJs cradle vinyl from the archive, spinning selections nightly with no playlists and no formula. Each evening is curated in real time. When bands perform, the Martin Audio system discreetly placed behind panels gives the music both gravity and clarity. You feel it in your chest, not just in your ears. Every seat, every booth, every corner has been shaped to share that sound intimately. Even in the most powerful moments, conversation stays close, anchored in warmth.
Then there is the Bamboo Room. This hidden tiki bar sits at the back, dressed with thatch and shadow, whispering its own fruity cocktail mood while staying within the same frequency. It does not interrupt the main bar, it expands it.
Food and drink follow the same logic as the music, thoughtful, playful, immediate. Dishes that could be indulgent, cheeseburgers, pies, fish fingers, arrive as nocturnal companions, finger food that sustains without slowing the night. Cocktails are bold and creative, from tropical tiki inflections to showstopping pours like the Caterpillar Downfall. The bar team treat each order as a mood to be shaped, not simply a drink to be served.
Every night feels like a performance, even when the record collection alone carries the set. The ritual is always there, the sound of a sleeve opening, the gentle brush across a disc, the crackle before the needle finds its groove. These small moments are as significant as the music itself. The audience does not need to be told to respect the sound. The room itself makes it obvious.
Beyond the main room sits the Den, a hidden enclave where the dance floor waits for those who need release. Yet the central bar holds most in its orbit, its gravity undeniable. People linger longer than planned, caught between candlelight, music, and the quiet sense that the night has its own choreography.
The Caterpillar Club is hospitality designed as architecture. It is a listening lounge, a stage, a speakeasy, and a subterranean retreat. It hosts nights, but more than that it composes them, each evening a performance in which guests, DJs, bartenders, and space itself all play their part.
Rafi Mercer writes about the spaces where music matters. For more stories from Tracks & Tales, subscribe here, or click here to read more.
