You’ve heard of BYO right? It’s an Australian tradition not seen in much of the rest of the world. Well, here’s a new one: BYF (or at least that’s what we’re calling it). Cobbler is promising patrons that they can bring their own food to the beverage-only venue.
Venues
Venues
When you step off the street and enter the hot dog joint, you have to find your way through a secret entrance to get to this new bar. No, it’s not PDT in New York and you’re entering via a Coke machine door and not a phone booth, but you get the idea.
Inside the bar is stripped back and designed to look like a disused soda factory; the island bar that centres the room will be familiar to anyone who can remember a night at the old Mars Lounge, which used to occupy the site.
We’re wondering why this hasn’t been done before. As we talk about in this month’s Trend section, food and drink are hand in glove more than ever before. And right on-trend comes Lotus Dumpling Bar, due to be open June.
Amy Spanton takes a look at the bar that has garnered more nominations than any other at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
Occupying a space that PLAY’s owners believe used to be an opium den in the 1930s. There is a clear emphasis on all things hip hop and what people in the nineties used to call “street culture”. It’s refreshing. To walk past on the street — and this has become a kind of commonplace when it comes to bars, but it’s true — you wouldn’t know it was there. Downstairs in the basement, the old chess supplies store has had it pre-fab walls ripped out to expose the beautiful, raw brickwork.
After three years running the influential Brisbane bar, Canvas, the four partners behind the venture have sold the bar and are moving on. “After three years of great success within the Australian bar scene we have decided to sell Canvas,” said one of the partners, Bonnie Shearston.
“With Public going from strength to strength and a new opportunity in sight we have decided it is time to let go and focus on things to come. All four partners are leaving Canvas and it will be taken over by two gents, Bodhi and Dan,” she said.
We broke the news in our November issue that celebrated Wellington operator, Christian McCabe, was setting up shop in Melbourne. His new venue, The Town Mouse, opened just before Easter in Carlton, on the old Embrasse site. McCabe has teamed up with his sister, Amber McCabe (Longrain) and Jay Comesky of Melbourne’s St Ali to run the front of house.
Zeta Bar at Sydney’s Hilton Hotel has got a new consultancy behind it — Sven Almenning’s Behind Bars will provide ongoing consultation on Zeta Bar’s exciting drinks program. “We are delighted to collaborate with one of Sydney’s leading cocktail venues at the iconic Hilton Sydney” said Behind Bar’s Russ McFadden. Along with Dr Phil Gandevia, McFadden will be managing the new partnershop
There’s a lot going on at Alfred & Constance. In fact, there are four venues in one. And more drinks lists, food menus and nooks and crannies to peruse than one outing will allow. It seems the era of Brissie’s pumping super-nightclubs is coming to a close with patrons clamouring for more eccentric and intimate places to spend their downtime.
The Bourbon is arguably the grand dame of Kings Cross drinking — no other place has the name, the notoriety and the rich and colourful history that this one does. It’s now undergone another refresh thanks to new owner Chris Cheung and veteran hospitality designer Paul Kelly. And though it will never be the same as the days long gone when guys like Frank Sinatra would visit when in town, the Bourbon’s refresh has a lot going for it.
In 1898 the streets of New York were ripe with vice; Gotham was in the grip of a burgeoning trade in brothels. A letter that year to The New York Times described hotels “where rustic beaus are fleeced and rustic belles debauched,” and a casual walk to church could see a man “accosted by a leering drunken woman.”
Sydney pub group J & J O’Brien — who operate the iconic Jacksons on George, along with The Watershed Hotel, Cohibar, and the Belvedere Hotel — have gone into receivership, sources have told Australian Bartender. ANZ has appointed receivers and have taken on oversight of the venues, they said.