Happy Hour
Hip bars that give us a reason to raise a glass
WITH winter nipping at our heels, it’s time to salute the last of those long balmy nights. Whether it’s a saké party or a simple tipple you have in mind, these top bars around Australia keep it interesting with envelopepushing cocktails, native-botanical-infused liquors and artisanal sodas.
NSW PS40
40 King Street, Sydney ps-soda.com It had to happen: craft sodas. Yes, the mixers – those things that make your favourite cocktails possible – have gone specialist. Think Wattle Cola, Smoked Lemonade and Bush Tonic with native lemongrass and lemon myrtle. They’re the backbone of this soft-drink factory that supplies restaurants and Archie Rose Distilling Co. and keeps drinkers at its 60-seat cocktail bar very happy. How could you not smile when presented with the refreshing Jean Claude Pandan made with pandanus-infused rum, pineapple, coconut water, whey and Ceylontea spice mix?
KITTYHAWK
16 Phillip Lane, Sydney; 0437 233 009 thekittyhawk.com.au So you’ve been looking everywhere for a bar with a theme based on the 1944 liberation of Paris but just haven’t found one? Well, luckily there’s Kittyhawk, the sibling of Clarence Street’s The Lobo Plantation. Rye and rum cocktails rule amid the military paraphernalia; order the Rye & Ginger with housemade ginger beer, pineapple and lime then hum La Marseillaise.
BAR BROSÉ
231a Victoria Street, Darlinghurst; 0450 307 117 barbrose.com.au A great range of natural wines and the crowd-pleasing food of young-gun chef Analiese Gregory – including her late-night toasted sandwich with Comté, ham, ’nduja and crème fraîche – make this a popular place to discuss the blurring of the bar/ restaurant boundary.
BAR PINCER
15 Bligh Street, Sydney; (02) 9232 0881 restauranthubert.com Tucked within the French fin-de-siècle juggernaut known as Restaurant Hubert, this bar is a way to sidestep the tyrannical bookings backlog as well as a destination in its own right. Expect snappy bartenders and snappier drinks – such as the Hubert Pastis Fizz with Cognac, cream and honey – in surroundings that demand your best shoes.
THIS MUST BE THE PLACE
239 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst; (02) 9331 8063 tmbtp.com.au Opened by two award-winning bartenders, this Scandi-schmick joint naturally takes its cocktails very seriously. Only five spritzes (for example, Indian Summer made with perry, chai spice, rosé, Bulleit Rye Frontier Whiskey and plum vinegar) and four cocktails (such as Coffee & Cigarettes, a mix of coffee-infused Tanqueray, Aperol, Campari, Lillet Blanc and amaretto) are on the list at any one time but the TMBTP bar staff are always happy to take requests.
Victoria DINNER BY HESTON BLUMENTHAL
Level 3, Crown Towers, 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank; (03) 9292 5779 dinnerbyheston.com.au It’s not all meat fruit and tipsy cake at the British celebrity chef’s stylish Crown haunt. There’s a destination bar, too, now open to the public from 10pm each night. London drinks svengali Tony Conigliaro matches Heston Blumenthal’s food blow for blow. His compelling cocktails have one foot in the past and one in the future; take White Cliffs (yes, a tribute to those white cliffs), a mixture of Champagne and chalk liqueur.
BAR LIBERTY
234 Johnston Street, Fitzroy barliberty.com First impressions say so much and to stumble into a place where aged bourbon is served from a pint-sized 1956 Ford Thunderbird perhaps says “irreverent” and most certainly says “different”. Bar Liberty is a more-dash-than-cash kind of place in the hipster heart of Fitzroy. It boasts an immaculate pedigree (three of the owners – including the booze list’s spiritual leader, Banjo Harris Plane – come from Attica restaurant). There’s also a real interest in the road less travelled, whether it’s minimal-intervention wines, saké or the Briny Bay cocktail made with vodka, olive brine and bay-leaf-infused oil.
SMALLS
20-22 Yarra Place, South Melbourne Small by name, small by nature. This 24-seat wine bar in a converted warehouse proves that good things come in small(s) packages, with a constantly changing wine list that showcases boutique producers from near and far. A smart interior with industrial windows that look onto gritty-chic Yarra Place is matched with a smart menu of nextgen bar snacks, such as puffed beef tendon.
OM NOM
187 Flinders Lane, Melbourne; (03) 8080 8827 omnom.kitchen The latest hook-up at the boutique Adelphi Hotel sees spirits meet science. Om Nom dessert bar now boasts a cocktail menu that goes head to head with the kitchen’s signature multi-element, fantastical treats. Cocktail creator Grant Collins thinks outside the box with drinks designed to
be eaten and vaped (yep, drinking cocktails
so 2016). Try the Mojito Science on for size; it’s a deconstructed take on the classic, involving a Mojito that’s heated, vaporised and inhaled, along with a Mojito canapé and Mojito sorbet frozen with liquid nitrogen.
HEARTBREAKER
234a Russell Street, Melbourne; (03) 9041 0856 heartbreakerbar.com.au Did someone say dive bar? With red neon cutting through the darkness and a jukebox set within the tight rock’n’roll parameters of 1968 to 1980, Heartbreaker sure looks like a dive bar, complete with libertine spirit. But as you’d expect from Michael Madrusan – the man behind Fitzroy’s proper grown-up cocktail bar, The Everleigh – this place has a serious selection of American whiskies and craft beer. There’s also excellent batched cocktails (Negroni, Martini, Old Fashioned and Manhattan), which come in cute bottles just perfect for your Instagram feed.
Queensland UP ON CONSTANCE
20 Constance Street, Fortitude Valley; (07) 3319 7899 uponconstance.com One more nail in the coffin for Fortitude Valley’s louche reputation, Up on Constance is a rooftop bar with bedazzling city views and equally bedazzling cocktails. Perched on top of the art-laden Tryp Fortitude Valley Hotel, it ticks the requisite boxes for cool: graffiti-decorated alleyway entrance to the glass elevator; wildly patterned modular outdoor furniture; and hanging plants to really drive home that tropical Queensland feel. An upmarket crowd gets stuck into drinks such as the Popcorn Thief (a dessert cocktail featuring buttered-popcorn-infused rum and amaretto) and the refreshing Elderlady (Tanqueray gin, elderflower and cloudy apple juice).
MAKER Fish Lane, South Brisbane
A laneway bar playing hard to get, Maker has made its mark despite the absence of a sign, phone number and website, all thanks to a purist approach to cocktails (including transparent, hand-chipped ice spheres) and a DIY stance on native botanical infusions. The theatre of cocktail-making is half the fun so if you can find the place, grab a seat at the long, oxidised-brass bar and get stuck into the Bone Marrow Whisky with blowtorched bone marrow, honey, tea and orange.
COCOON
58 Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise; (07) 5526 2033 cocoongoldcoast.com The Gold Coast is readying itself for next year’s Commonwealth Games and, to celebrate, it’s breaking out the bling. Right in the heart of Surfers Paradise lurks this luxe-to-the-max lounge bar (full name: Cocoon Ultralounge Bar Dining), which
enjoys a full frontal aspect over Nerang River and a whiter-than-white fit-out worthy of Ibiza. Watch the sun go down from one of the cabanas draped in sheer curtains, with a Corona or cocktail in hand.
Northern Territory PM EAT & DRINK
Corner of Knuckey Street and Austin Lane, Darwin; (08) 8941 3925 pmeatdrink.com It’s smart and simple and, therefore, the antithesis of so many Darwin beer barns. At this sleek drinking hole in the city centre, they prefer their cocktails with a twist: a Cosmopolitan infused with ginger, say, or a chilli-spiked Mojito. A small-plate menu of Territorian seafood grilled over charcoal offers the perfect chaser.
ACT THE HIGHBALL EXPRESS
Level 1, 82 Alinga Street, Canberra highballexpress.com.au The Cuban theme at this fun Civic bar means one thing: rum. More than 300 varieties, to be exact. The younger sibling of speakeasystyle bar Molly, The Highball Express has another natural advantage: a broad balcony for imbibing al fresco.
South Australia
21 Leigh Street, Adelaide pinkmoonsaloon.com.au Once an inner-city laneway mostly used to house bins, now it houses Adelaide’s coolest bar. Come for the architecture (from the street, it presents as a storybook wooden hut sandwiched between two office buildings) and stay for the drinks: five tap brews and hardcore cocktails such as the Rapscallion (whisky, Pedro Ximenéz and absinthe).
2KW
Level 8, 2 King William Street, Adelaide; (08) 8212 5511 2kwbar.com.au Sure, 2KW could have lazily relied on the incredible views eight floors above the city but instead it goes for gold-class status by trying to outshine the bright lights of central Adelaide. A smart indoor/outdoor layout includes a row of wooden cabanas for small gatherings and there’s a dress-to-impress vibe (be warned: it’s vigorously policed). Luckily, they back the style with substance, including a great list of beers, wines and patriotic South Australian-inspired cocktails such as the KI Buzz – a tribute to Kangaroo Island’s celebrated pure Ligurian bee colony – with gin, honey and lemon.
Western Australia
Level 6, 1 Silas Street, East Fremantle; (08) 9387 0888 sweetwaterbar.com.au It’s six floors up in East Freo’s Richmond Quarter development but Sweetwater has its feet on the ground with a dance card of refreshing cocktails, including a Mint Julep and a gin-based Cucumber Gimlet, plus a list of punchy wines. The fashion-forward crowd loves a party, which makes the Friday-night DJ appearances very handy indeed.
STRANGE COMPANY
5 Nairn Street, Fremantle; (08) 9431 7373 strangecompany.com.au A broad drinkers’ church, this Freo favourite with a designer roller-door entrance has a please-all-comers range of craft beer and cider. There’s a wine list stacked with 11 rosés, along with cocktails that do the twist on classics, such as the Lemon Butter Old Fashioned with 666 Autumn Butter Vodka, riesling and quince bitters.
Tasmania FRANKLIN
30 Argyle Street, Hobart; (03) 6234 3375 franklinhobart.com.au It’s the restaurant on everyone’s lips, thanks to David Moyle’s forward-thinking modern Australian food. But the bar colonising one section of this concrete and cow-hide-decorated former car showroom is no mere afterthought; it’s Hobart’s go-to for minimal-intervention, thought-provoking wines and interesting ales.
THE GLASS HOUSE
Brooke Street Pier, Hobart; (03) 6223 1032 theglass.house The most chichi address in Hobart, The Glass House is a glowing apparition that juts over the water atop an innovative four-storey floating pier. At this no-expense-spared bar, the drinks list runs to some serious saké action (the perfect match for chef Sam Gasson’s Japanese-inspired snacking menu), along with Tassie-centric wines and whisky and classic cocktails made with local spirits.