Month: November 2012

Classic: Perfecting the Pousse Cafe

Q.F.s, B52s and Slippery Nipples were some of the first drinks I learnt behind the bar whilst pouring pints at a beer barn in south-eastern England. What I wasn’t aware of at the time was that I was making a Parisian café drink popular in mid-19th century America.

Internationalist: Creativity — overrated and underpaid

Creativity is knowing how to conceal your sources**. Do you know who said that? No? Well in that case, it was me! Aren’t I clever? Now give me some money.

Painful is the only way to describe the story of Tony Mason , who claims to have invented the Lynchburg Lemonade in 1980 at his bar. A Jack Daniels’ sales rep who visited the bar learned the recipe, communicated it up the corporate food chain, and JD rolled out a national Lynchburg Lemonade promotional campaign. A few years later, JD even launched RTD versions of the Lynchburg. Millions were sold.

Distillery profile: Chambord

According to legend, in 1685 King Louis XIV visited Château Chambord, where he enjoyed a marvellous liqueur made from wild raspberries. This liqueur inspired the spirit that today is known as Chambord Liqueur Royale de France. The rich heritage of the Liqueur Royale is now celebrated in the reintroduction of Chambord, the world-renowned black raspberry liqueur for the modern mixologist.

Bartender of the Year 2012 Wrap

The Australian Bartender magazine Bartender of the Year Competition, sponsored by Ketel One, is a bartending challenge that always throws up a few surprises. 2012 proved to be no exception with the calibre of bartenders involved proving to be outstandingly high.

Udaberri

It used to be a sterile office space all one shade of white – white walls, white ceilings, fluorescent office light. The very definition of bland, monochrome and uniform. But this space, now home to Udaberri, is much more than that: deep warm-toned timber floors, below exposed ceilings and brick wall, while chesterfield lounges and communal tables provide space to relax.

Bar profile: The Morrison

In 1920’s Sydney, if you drank at a pub and hurt yourself it was you’re your own fault. One Christmas Eve morning in 1927, a naval petty officer fell 25 feet from the second floor of the Brooklyn Hotel, suffering “a probable fracture of the spine, fractured skull, and fractured jaw”. Today that might spark a media and public outcry. Instead, the Sydney Morning Herald at the time pithily reported that “it is believed he overbalanced on the railing.” Things, of course, have changed.

Eau de Vie’s Max Greco goes solo

Max Greco from Sydney’s award winning cocktail bar Eau De Vie (Cocktail bar of the Year at the 2012 Australian Bar Awards), is going solo by opening his own venture in Surry Hills. Little House, as the venue will be called, is set to be a rock ‘n’ roll cocktail bar taking over the site that currently houses South American restaurant Boteco (421 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills).

Wellington’s Matterhorn maestro moves to Melbourne

Here’s an opening that we’re looking forward to. One of New Zealand’s finest talents, Christian McCabe, has made the move across the ditch to Melbourne to open a bar that is a mix of drinking and dining. “After looking in many places and abandoning a project or two we have finally managed to secure a site in Carlton,” said McCabe about the new site where the former one-hat diner, Embrasse used to stand.

Harlem on Central

It used to be, only a few years ago, that a night out in Manly, home of the silvertails, sandy beaches and surfers, involved heading down to the Corso and into a big ol’ beer barn. There’d you’d order beer, if you were a guy (it’s a beer barn, after all), and you were likely wearing a T-shirt.

Which is not to say that is bad, because there is a time and a place for that. But that was all there was. And it couldn’t be further from the truth today.

Masterclass: Vermouth

It’s probably one of the most common ingredients in classic cocktails, however vermouth is most likely the stuff that you end up cleaning of your bar mats! It hasn’t always been this way, with the Vermouth Cocktail considered quite a hit back in the late 1800s, but sadly today you’ll not often hear, “Barkeep – a wine glass of dry vermouth, chilled and garnished with lemon. Up.” Hopefully however after reading this month’s Trend piece you’ll be more inspired, confident and determined to offer up a vermouth focused cocktail – or tasting flight – to your bar’s tipplers.