When I first began in this industry and started frequenting cocktail bars I was never overly impressed with the food offering, if indeed there was one at all. Eating elsewhere and then arriving at your cocktail drinking destination was simply what was done. Over the past few years I have noticed a massive swing in venues specialising in cocktails and offering great food selections (or indeed improving upon their existing), even to the quality of top restaurants.
Featured
Featured Content
This week sees the Just One Shift initiative taking place. Starting from Monday the 8th and rolling all the way through to Sunday 14th, bartenders from Australia and all across the globe will take part in the plan to raise $250,000 USD over a one-week period…
In what seems like a world away from the sterilised public spaces that seem to account for so much of our transport hubs, check out this read from Esquire about the bartenders at Grand Central Station — it’s all about drinking on trains, adultery, and what men used to drink…
There’s just six months to go till Sydney Bar Week kicks off again and the schedule is filling fast. Importantly the official after-party to the Bar Awards is sorted too and looks set to be the best yet. Put on by industry vets Rossco Charman and Andy Penney, they’re promising this year’s party will be bigger and better than ever.
One half of the Swillhouse Group, Jason Scott (Shady Pines Saloon et al) is partnering with Jamie Webb (Cabiria, Peasant) in a new saloon-style music hall in Brisbane. “It’s called Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall,” said Webb. “We are a country music hall with free music and a democratic door policy.”
When Melbourne bar impresario, Vernon Chalker (Gin Palace, Bar Ampere) played boozy-matchmaker to bartender Shaun Byrne and respected winemaker Gilles Lapalus, the result was two beautiful new vermouths. We caught up with the gents to find out how they did it.
Looking for a bar? Well, don’t bother looking for the sign above a big, bold entry right on a main road. No siree, from what I can gather, those days are long gone. Bars in 2013 are secreted down laneways, up elevators, round corners, behind restaurants, or in basements. Sometimes you need a secret password.
Boring stuff, right? But wherever booze is there’s someone looking to make money from it, someone wanting to tax it, and someone looking to find ways they can sell more of it. Yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald carried a story about calls from the Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia to change the way alcohol is taxed — which would see ciders attracting a higher tax rate than they do now.
For your chance to win a trip to Venice and to mix with the stars, have a crack at the 2013 Disaronno Global Cocktail Competition.
Well, it’s Easter — and with it comes a long weekend — and we figured…
A business degree and a bit of an economics crush on Adam Smith might be just be what helped Sean, last year’s Australian Bartender Rookie of the Year, have such a stellar 2012.
It’s a drink that takes a long time to make, so we thought we enlist a bartender who’s been around a long time too. Veteran bartender Cristiano Beretta (The Rook, Sydney) has made his fair share of Ramos Gin Fizzes through the years, so press play below and pay attention…