Tilly's Sweet 16

Love, Tilly Devine celebrates her Sweet 16, and in true Tilly style, we’re throwing a Party with a capital P.

On the night, we’ll be slinging bottles from some of our fave producers, including Manon (by Tilly co-founder and OG chef Tim Webber), Aristotelis Ke Anthoula, Pheasant’s Tears, Les Fruits, Basket Range, Gullyview and Stargazer, and pouring some special one-off vintage Magnums by the glass for the occasion.

To eat, there will be a roaming selection of Australiana snacks, by Culinary Director Scott McComas-Williams and Head Chef Tom Cleland, the latter of whom heads up the Tilly team in one of Sydney’s smallest kitchens. Included in the ticket price, there’ll be Aussie gildas; tartare with ‘the lot’; house made ‘Vegemite’ toast with Reggiano (resurrected from Michael West’s memorable 2019 menu); potato scallop with crab salad, and mini sausage sangas. Pssst… there might even be a cheeky cake.

Tucked down our Darlo alleyway, Tilly (as she’s become known) is one of the OG Sydney wine bars, paving the way for the city’s minimal intervention wine revolution. Since opening in 2010, we’ve championed Australia’s burgeoning natural wine scene and epic internationals (our off-list Overnoy collection, buried deep in Tilly’s cellar, was once a sight to behold).

Named for the notorious 1920s Sydney crime-boss, madame and underbelly figure Tilly Devine, Tilly exudes a whisper of her namesake’s rebellious spirit to this day… Over the years, she’s hosted some raucous parties (IYKYK), and provided the backdrop for countless first, second - and occasionally last - dates, private parties, weddings, thousands of spontaneous nights out, after work drinks and regular Tilly Takeovers with some of the country’s best winemakers.

As her namesake would attest, it's no mean feat to survive 16 years in the mean streets of Darlo, and this celebration is a nod to the team—past and present—the growers and producers who have made so many memorable bottles, and the guests who have kept Tilly going well into her second decade.

Some words to mark the occasion from our fearless co-founder, legendary Riesling enthusiast, and Love Tilly Group director, Matt Swieboda…

“When we opened Love, Tilly Devine in 2010, I wanted to create the kind of wine bar that didn’t exist in Sydney at the time. I was fascinated by all the interesting wines you could drink in three-hat restaurants, but I didn't think you should have to commit to an expensive dinner to drink them.

There was a growing number of winemakers, particularly in Europe and the Basket Range, questioning the industrial approach to winemaking. They were instead making wines with minimal intervention, often from obscure grape varieties and forgotten regions, and the results were extraordinary. We saw the future in natural wine - they felt profoundly different to anything we'd tasted before and were genuinely so exciting.
So, we built a little bar, more or less with our bare hands, down a back alley in Darlinghurst, and filled it with the wines we loved. We had no idea whether anyone would come, but lo and behold, we were packed from our very first night. Sixteen years later, the fact that people are still squeezing into that same little room to fall in love with a glass of something different, feels pretty special.”

Raise a glass (natural or not) to Love, Tilly Devine’s 16th Birthday on Thursday, October 29th. Tickets ($30, including roaming snacks) are now on sale.