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A hotel bar gilt with talent

The QT hotel brand has opened their Sydney flagship location, complete with three high-quality bars over different floors and some significant Sydney talent. The emphasis on quality extends further than just your usual hotel bar fare, with the team using house-made ingredients where possible.

Introducing: Samuel Ng

This guy was nominated for Rookie of the Year at the Bar Awards this year and has a damn impressive resume for someone with less than two years ‘tending stick. Introducing, Samuel Ng.

A bumper bartending bash

People from all over the country once again descended on Sydney for what is without question the biggest gathering of bartenders and bar professionals in Australia each year. We implemented many new changes to the schedule this year and none better than the move back to the event’s spiritual home at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in the Rocks. If there was one thing everyone could agree on it was how much better this picturesque waterside location was for both the trade and general public visitors.

Fox Bar

We’re well versed in the spate of small bar openings that have taken over Sydney and other capital cities (yes Melbourne, you did it first) but there isn’t a lot we hear about the trend flowering beyond the major cities.

Sure, there’s Goldfish in the Hunter Valley. Now, thanks to the arrival of Fox Bar in Maitland there are the nascent beginnings of a Hunter Valley small bar tour – though someone is going to have to drive.

Yard Bird Ale House

What’s that? An invitation to smash as many of their “death sentence wings” as you can in just twelve minutes? And American craft brews feature in their Sunday “crafternoon” special?

Virginia Plain

With lyrics that seem contradictory and oblique, Roxy Music’s 1972 debut single Virginia Plain might seem an odd source inspiration for a bar’s moniker.
But look at the drink menu and the kitchen fare and things start to make sense.

Classic: Perfecting the Pousse Cafe

Q.F.s, B52s and Slippery Nipples were some of the first drinks I learnt behind the bar whilst pouring pints at a beer barn in south-eastern England. What I wasn’t aware of at the time was that I was making a Parisian café drink popular in mid-19th century America.

Internationalist: Creativity — overrated and underpaid

Creativity is knowing how to conceal your sources**. Do you know who said that? No? Well in that case, it was me! Aren’t I clever? Now give me some money.

Painful is the only way to describe the story of Tony Mason , who claims to have invented the Lynchburg Lemonade in 1980 at his bar. A Jack Daniels’ sales rep who visited the bar learned the recipe, communicated it up the corporate food chain, and JD rolled out a national Lynchburg Lemonade promotional campaign. A few years later, JD even launched RTD versions of the Lynchburg. Millions were sold.

Distillery profile: Chambord

According to legend, in 1685 King Louis XIV visited Château Chambord, where he enjoyed a marvellous liqueur made from wild raspberries. This liqueur inspired the spirit that today is known as Chambord Liqueur Royale de France. The rich heritage of the Liqueur Royale is now celebrated in the reintroduction of Chambord, the world-renowned black raspberry liqueur for the modern mixologist.

Bartender of the Year 2012 Wrap

The Australian Bartender magazine Bartender of the Year Competition, sponsored by Ketel One, is a bartending challenge that always throws up a few surprises. 2012 proved to be no exception with the calibre of bartenders involved proving to be outstandingly high.