Bistro

The Bankstown RSL bistro is a long room divided at regular intervals by red steel columns. The columns are painted glossy red, the same colour as the deep crimson ceiling above. Patterned carpet covers the floor wall to wall, its geometry complementing the column grid. Stripped servery counters line the back of the room, their stainless surfaces empty. Chairs and tables are arranged in their last configuration, a few pushed out as if their last users had left in a hurry. The lighting is mostly out. The colour comes from the ceiling and the columns rather than from any lit surface.

RSL bistros across suburban Sydney followed a similar formula in the 1970s and 1980s: members and guests, two-course meals, kids' dinners, and steady through-trade between the bar and the auditorium. The colour scheme at Bankstown was unusually committed. Most bistros of the era went neutral. Bankstown went deep crimson and red steel. The room ran for decades on Tuesday-night roasts, Saturday-night formals, and the steady weeknight drift of the local membership. The Bankstown RSL was demolished in March 2019. The red columns and crimson ceiling are not in the bistro that has replaced them, because there isn't one.