Month: January 2013

Moustachioed bitters smugglers from… NZ?

The fine folk at Motel in Wellington have been making bitters for their own bar, then they started handing them around their friends’ bars, now they’re smuggling (OK, importing) them here, said bitterer Tom Egerton.

Drink & Dine’s James Miller has passed away

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that innovative Sydney publican, James Miller (Drink & Dine Group) has passed away.

He was a central part of the team that brought innovation to Sydney’s pub landscape, with each of their venues — The Norfolk Hotel, The Carrington, The Abercombie, and most recently, Santa Barbara — enjoying great successes and revitalising the local drinking scene.

Classic: Toreador

Tequila. I love it. You love it. Heck, even punters are coming around to its agave spirit goodness be it sipped neat or quaffed in mixed drinks. But for a long time tequila has been viewed as a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to cocktails.

Americana goes bananas!

Living in today’s fast-paced, online world when something is trendy it spreads like the plague. Take the fashion industry, for example, one day an outfit is on the catwalk, it’s copied and sold everywhere, and a few weeks later everyone is wearing it.

Mr Wow’s Emporium

The team behind Lily Blacks (nominated for Best Bartender’s Bar at Bartender’s Australian Bar Awards) are wowing Melbourne boozehounds with new bar, Mr. Wow’s Emporium. Exposed brick walls and long wooden tables and a curved bar house a wowing drinks program.

Andy Griffiths heads up Mesoamerican bar

Andy Griffiths, one time bar manager at Melbourne’s award winning Cookie, has finally given us the inside word on what he has been up to since giving up his post last year. Griffiths has been busy planning the bar for Mesa Verde a new venue opening in Melbourne next month.

Musical chairs in Perth

The Perth bar scene is alive and well it seems, with a bit of musical bartender chairs being played. It appears that Luxe bar is ground zero for a lot of this too. Not only is owner Andy Freeman setting up a new bar, called The Varnish (as we reported in October’s Bartender) but other Luxe alumni are making moves too.

How to: rapid infusions

You have six packs of cream charges, a cream canister, a load of fresh berries and all sorts of party supplies like balloons and cocktail parasols. You make a note to ignore the knowing looks you get from the barely post-pubescent checkout guy.

Gin: jacked up on juniper

OK. Let’s get this straight from the beginning. Genever is not gin. Though gin was definitely based on the Dutch genever, genever has more in common with moonshine than it does gin.

A select new rum from Bundaberg

Building on the success of Bundaberg Select Vat Rum, Bundaberg Distilling Company’s Master Craftsmen have hand selected the next vat to be used in the premium series.

Tippler’s Tap

Beer is more important to Aussie bars than ever. Tippler’s Tap is testament to this – as manager Carl Rhodes describes it, Tippler’s “is a small neighbourhood bar with no pretense, no dress code and no crap beer.” Seems they’re clear about what they want to do with the place.