A restaurant bar is a unique beast, but managing one inside Australia’s most iconic building, the Sydney Opera House, is a whole other level. Editor Kim Berry talks to Bennelong bar manager, Taka Shino, about what it takes.
Tell us about your process in developing new cocktails.
Our cocktail menu is a group effort of the team. We begin with selecting an overarching theme, the current menu is “The Travellers”. It came from the Opera House being somewhere people from all over the world visit, and our multicultural bar team.
We took inspiration from the team’s countries of origin – Japan, Italy, Philippines, Nepal, Vietnam and the UK. Initially we develop prototypes individually, and for this menu we each had to choose one ingredient from our country that had to be included in each creation. From there we fine tune the recipes together with the team.
Each cocktail menu takes roughly two months to produce and we change the menu every six months.
Are you seeing an increase in people choosing low or no alcohol options, and if so, how do you meet those changing needs?
We probably see this more than most cocktail bars because of the nature of being part of a restaurant. Especially post Covid, we’ve definitely seen a huge increase in the up-take of non-alcoholic drinks.
The most difficult aspect of this category however is the ability to cater for the strict requirements deriving from religious reasons. They often require the complete absence of products deriving or utilising from alcohol, no matter how minimal – and legally considered – non-alcoholic a product/ingredient may be.
The effort we put into this category of drinks has increased substantially, and some of the techniques we use for alcoholic cocktails are transferring over to this category.
What is the favourite part of your job?
There are a few reasons why some of us really thrive in this industry as it is most definitely not for everyone. Personally, I derive the most enjoyment from my engagement with my team, seeing them grow and improve throughout the months and years. It is also amazing to see how different members bring varying ideas to the table that we’re able to bounce off each other to create something we never would have imagined by ourselves.
