There are plenty of ways to spend a Thursday night in Sydney, but when someone tells you there’s a free pizza party in an underground nightclub in Potts Point, you probably don’t need too much convincing.
So we lined up.
The Domino’s New Yorker Block Party was taking over Room 22 on Bayswater Road, turning the underground Potts Point venue into a one-night-only slice of New York. The party was built around the return of Domino’s massive 16-inch New Yorker pizza, but this wasn’t simply a pizza launch with a few balloons thrown up around the room. Domino’s had gone deep on the NYC theme, bringing together pizza, DJs, sneakers, Coca-Cola and a few details that made the whole thing feel considerably more thought-out.
Even before we got inside, the New York theme was already waiting outside.
The yellow cab Domino’s had been running around Sydney in the lead-up to the party was there in all its glory. It wasn’t some generic yellow car with a Domino’s sticker slapped on the side, either. It was a proper New York style taxi, complete with the kind of details you’d expect to see cruising down Fifth Avenue rather than Bayswater Road, right down to the New York State plates. The Domino’s branding and rooftop topper gave it away, but for a second, sitting there outside a Sydney nightclub, it looked like someone had somehow ripped a cab straight out of Manhattan and dropped it into Kings Cross.
That was probably the point.
Domino’s had been pushing the New Yorker as something larger than a pizza, and the campaign was built around bringing that oversized New York attitude into the real world. The cab had already been cruising around some of Sydney’s most recognisable spots, serving up the supersized pizza and creating a little street-level chaos before the party even started.
Then there was the line.
Because the party was free, 18+ and first come, first served, people had actually turned up early. We joined the queue and waited it out, watching the crowd build as the doors got closer to opening. There was something pretty old-school about it , no complicated ticketing system, no VIP wristband circus. Just get there, line up and hope you get through the door before capacity was reached.
Eventually, we made it inside.
Room 22 is about as far away from a bright, polished New York restaurant as you can get. It’s an underground nightclub tucked beneath Potts Point, with the dark, low-lit atmosphere and proper dancefloor energy you’d expect from a Kings Cross venue. The space is built for music, with a main club area, bar and DJ setup, and on this particular night the whole place had been transformed into Domino’s version of NYC.
The bar was doing its thing, drinks were moving, the DJs were on and the room started filling up pretty quickly.
And then came the pizza.
The New Yorker is Domino’s biggest pizza, with fresh hand-stretched dough and those giant slices designed to fold which, considering the whole campaign was called “Behold the Fold,” was pretty much the entire point. There were different flavours doing the rounds, including The Big Cheese, Pepperoni Boss, Hot Honey Pepperoni Boss, Little Italy and Bacon Kingpin.
The slices were huge. Proper fold-in-half-and-get-on-with-it pizza.
Coca-Cola was there keeping things cold, while Foot Locker brought the sneaker and streetwear side of the evening into the mix with drops, giveaways and merch. There were New York-inspired photo moments scattered through the venue, and the whole thing had that slightly ridiculous, oversized quality that actually suited the concept.
The music helped push it away from feeling like a corporate activation and more towards an actual night out. DJs Trey and Mike Champion handled the soundtrack, with hip-hop and club music filling out the underground room.
Standing at the bar with a giant slice of pizza in one hand and a drink in the other, it was hard not to appreciate the ridiculousness of it.
Sydney.
Potts Point.
A New York taxi outside.
New York State plates.
Sixteen-inch pizzas.
Sneakers.
DJs.
And a nightclub full of people eating Domino’s.
It was definitely not New York, but that was almost what made it work. Domino’s wasn’t trying to recreate Manhattan street-for-street. It took a few recognisable pieces — the yellow cab, the giant foldable pizza, the sneakers, the music, the attitude — and dropped them into one of Sydney’s more suitably underground nightlife spots.
We stayed for the party, grabbed another slice, checked out the Foot Locker drops and soaked up the atmosphere before eventually making our way back out into Bayswater Road.
Outside, Sydney was still Sydney.
Inside, for a few hours, Domino’s had made a pretty convincing argument for doing Thursday night like a New Yorker.
FRANK 151