Marrickville Ritz Hotel, Marrickville

It's bright, it's flashy, it's The Ritz. The newest pub addition to the Illawarra Road strip in Marrickville is a glittering beacon of bling in between Banana Joes and the hole-in-the-wall Marrickville Pork Roll shop. The space was formerly a hokey arcade that housed a shoe shop and Vietnamese cafe.

When the owners of the struggling Henson Park Hotel finally won approval to transfer their