Veteran bartender and long-serving general manager of award-winning The Gresham, Ryan Lane, is opening Brisbane bar Proof BBQ & Booze.
Lane recently left his post at The Gresham, having been on board from the get go and steering the venue to two Bar of the Year wins at the Bartender Magazine Australian Bar Awards, among other accolades. He also landed at number six on 2017’s Bartender Magazine The Most Influential List sponsored by Angostura aromatic bitters. In this new venture, he is teaming up with a former beer rep turned barbecue devotee, Michael Cameron.
Cameron is also the owner of Meat Me BBQ, a catering company specialising in the smoky barbecue arts.
They’re taking over the site of Harry’s Diner in Windsor, says Lane, and the site’s history as an American diner will segue nicely into its next incarnation.
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“The old Harry’s Diner [has been] a Brisbane institution for nearly 25 years,” says Lane. “[It] was an American diner in Windsor, an inner-northern suburb of Brisbane (about a five minute Uber ride from the Valley). [It] was also a classic car enthusiasts hang out on weekends — it makes sense for me right?”
Lane is well known for his love of American whiskey and the food and drink culture of the American South, and will be bringing that to Proof BBQ & Booze.
“The drinks focus will (obviously) be bourbon-heavy on the list, but I really want to create a great little locals’ vibe — think Cheers,” Lane says. He says to expect “craft beers galore, a small select list of cocktails, great wines by the glass.”
And the food will be the main event, drawing on Cameron’s expertise as a competition BBQ’er.
“We will be doing low’n’slow BBQ,” says Lane, “cooking every god-damned day! We’ll have three smokers on the go. Everything is in-house made, from sausages (hot links), burger patties and buns, our own bacon etc.”
“We will be serving á la carte and meat by the pound,” says Cameron. Think beef briskets, short ribs, tomahawk steaks, pork ribs, pulled pork and wings. And it’ll all be “smoked on a combination of our cabinet and offset smokers, smoking over iron bark and fruit woods daily,” Cameron says.
And for burger fans, you’ve got some aces choices, too: The Double Double (double beef, double cheese, double bacon and in house pickles) is served on their daily baked buns made on site.
They plan on trading seven days a week, and will be there to satiate your day-after-the-night-before desires for smoky meats from lunch and into dinner.
Lane tells us that they’re hoping to have the doors open come early July this year.
You can find Proof BBQ & Booze at 14/104 Newmarket Rd, Windsor QLD. You can visit them online at proofbbq.com and on Facebook and Instagram.