Once you find the bars, you can choose your drinking fantasy, most of which have taken elements of American bar history as their inspiration. The Baxter Inn (thebaxterinn.com), secreted within a courtyard reached via a rather foreboding alley, and down some service stairs, is a warm, wooden tavern vaguely evocative of an old Boston pub. Hundreds of whiskey bottles (mainly Scotch) line the Everest-like back bar. There are a few cocktails, including a popular on-draft old-fashioned, which is served in a brandy snifter containing ice cubes and an orange twist, both huge. But most people here come for straight drams, which are also served in snifters.

If you prefer American whiskey, the Baxter Inn’s owners also run Shady Pines Saloon (shadypinessaloon.com), across town in the Darlinghurst neighborhood. Here, the bar’s elusive rabbit hole hurtles you into a Southern-style honky-tonk where a beer and a shot are the call of the day and taxidermy is a synonym for décor.

The Lobo Plantation (thelobo.com.au) is across the street from the Baxter Inn. (Sydney cocktail bars are conveniently positioned in tight clusters of two or three.) It is a colorful, quasi-Cuban tiki dream in yet another subterranean space, with a wide array of rums. Cocktails include spins on drinks both new, such as the Penicilina, a tequila spin on the Penicillin, and old, like the creamy Toasted Almond Mai Tai. The latter is garnished with a marshmallow, charred by a frequently brandished blowtorch.