Story by Wee James MacRae, Hendrick’s Gin Brand Ambassador @weejammacrae
Photography by Nikki To
From the award-winning Bar Planet comes a brand-new menu ‘Soigne’ (pronounced “Swan-Yay”) with a big change – the foray into new flavours from international gins starting with Hendrick’s Gin!
This is the fifth menu from the Newtown/Enmore Road venue, which, in just over a year has become a leading venue within the Australian bartending community and a firm favourite with Martini lovers everywhere.
From the new Soigne menu (which comes from the French verb ‘Soigner’—which means to be taken care of, paid attention to—a philosophy that the awesome Bar Planet team take to heart and excel at) comes the ‘Mirage’ cocktail: a combination of Hendrick’s Gin, ‘Jet 16’ an infusion of Cardamon & Tarragon, fresh mint, and cucumber.
“Southside, Eastside or Mojito, the combination of fresh lime with mint is an equation that is refreshment guaranteed. Our mix is a hyper-green, post-realist attempt. Super-saturated and super tasty… fresh cucumber juice adds a weird bitterness and brings the drink back to life, and back to the moment,” says Jeremy Blackmore, Creative Director for Mucho Group, and co-owner of Bar Planet.
“Southside, Eastside or Mojito, the combination of fresh lime with mint is an equation that is refreshment guaranteed. Our mix is a hyper-green, post-realist attempt. Super-saturated and super tasty… fresh cucumber juice adds a weird bitterness and brings the drink back to life, and back to the moment,” says Jeremy Blackmore, Creative Director for Mucho Group, and co-owner of Bar Planet.
As someone who religiously shoves handfuls of popcorn into their face at any given chance, the curry butter variety served at BP being no exception, there is often the dilemma on what to refresh oneself with outside of a Martini when sitting at the bar. So much so, a satisfyingly refreshing long gin cocktail that makes me feel slightly better about the number of bags of popcorn I’ve ingested is often top of mind.
Some months ago, I was lucky enough to try one of Bar Planet’s famous Scorpino seasonal sorbet serves, with fresh cucumber sorbet. It was of course sensational; the epitome of a thirst quencher, and something I could lie to myself was part of my fruit and veg for the day. From that moment on I have been dreaming of the day that I could have another cucumber-related refreshing banger at Bar Planet, but with Hendrick’s Gin.
I know I’m very much biased here, but one of the most refreshing ingredients for me is cucumber. What better way to balance mouth loads of BP’s morish popcorn bar snacks.
Naturally the perfect accompaniment to cucumber in liquid format as far as this writer is concerned is Hendrick’s Gin; we do of course use cucumbers as one of our thirteen botanicals. Therefore, with this cocktail we have a match made in heaven, resulting in one very happy small Scottish man.
For any bar menu, balance is hugely important, especially when you have a more focused menu (outside of their famous martini offerings, there are just six cocktails on BPs menu), and while you may specialise in or hero one category of spirits (Gin, Vodka, Whisk(e)y, Agave Spirits, etc.), there will always be a range of drinks experiences you want to offer. The ‘Soigne’ menu nails this balance.
Now, of course, we can’t forget the Martini. It is Bar Planet’s proverbial bread and butter, and a must-try for every visit.
For the martini lovers out there reading this, which I imagine is almost all of you, fear not. Hendrick’s Gin is also available for the “How you like it” Martini resulting in non-traditional floral deliciousness.
The “How you like it” way of having your Martini has been a favourite option since my very first visit to BP a couple of weeks after they opened in April 2022. As put perfectly by Jeremy: “Martinis have a culture. A wise bartender once told me, ‘Ordering a Martini is a conversation’.
People love to create ownership over the way they order their Martinis; how dirty they want it, how dry – each of the details being a step towards individual ownership.”
Being able to experiment and adapt a serve is always something that we as bartenders and bon vivants enjoy. Getting to offer that to guests is even cooler. Being able to have the gin that opened flavour beyond those traditional London dry profiles and helped create the ‘new world’ style in a martini with your choice of balance and garnish, be it Olive, a twist, or a refreshing slice of cucumber – awesome!
Needless to say, you will find me propping up the bar at BP a lot over the next few months as I find that perfect refreshment balance between delicious cucumber bangers and curry butter popcorn!
This story featured in the June issue of Australian Bartender Magazine and was shot on location at Bar Planet by Nikki To.