Tag: bars

Manager Profile: Ben Clark

The Zetter Townhouse, London, was nominated for two awards 2012’s Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, taking out the World’s Best New Cocktail Bar award. We met up with its Aussie ex-pat bar manager, Ben Clark for a couple of drinks when he was in Sydney recently.

Brisbane location frustration

Why in Brisbane in particular, does location seem to be one of the most important factors to consider when opening a new venue? Are the people of Brisbane less adventurous than in other cities? Is it correlated to our infrastructure? Is it simply a lack of population?

Bulletin Place

Bulletin Place has been a breath of fresh air in the Sydney CBD thanks to the focus on fresh produce — their five strong list of cocktails is determined by what is the best fruit at the market each day. It’s an approach that chefs have taken for some time, as bartender and co-owner Tim Philips will tell you.

Santa Barbara

Though Sydney might have developed a penchant for south-of-the-border, down-Mexico-way kind of flavours there’s still a whole lot be mined north of the border.

Bar Profile: Cellar Bar

Perhaps food and drink got too serious there for a while, too self-referential. The experience became less about the company you kept and more about food for food’s sake. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a market for grown up food and drink – pounding back tequilas and tinnies of beer is not for everyone, after all. And it’s to those folks that Cellar Bar, Melbourne is looking. The place is grown up, refreshingly lacking in irony, and is a whole lot of fun.

Americana goes bananas!

Living in today’s fast-paced, online world when something is trendy it spreads like the plague. Take the fashion industry, for example, one day an outfit is on the catwalk, it’s copied and sold everywhere, and a few weeks later everyone is wearing it.

Internationalist: think global, act local

By Philip Duff

I just survived a hurricane. Well, I say survived. Hurricanes ain’t what they used to be. Last year here in New York I bravely battled Hurricane Irene, which turned out to be mostly an opportunity for cute girls on the Upper East Side to walk around in short shorts and knee-high rubber boots ( a sight I found disturbingly arousing – must have lived too long in the UK in my youth). It rained a lot.

Internationalist: Opinions are like arseholes…

Philip Duff: “So there you are, bartendering away when an otherwise normal human who, you can’t help reminding yourself, is in all likelihood allowed to vote, proffers an opinion with a foundation more flimsy than a Kardashian’s knickers.”