FNQ raises the cocktail bar
Sip way through FNQ bars
COCKTAILS are fun drinks, but they don’t need to be consumed in boring surroundings.
There are some amazing bars across the Far North, where a typical cocktail experience has been taken to the next level.
Check out these unique places across the region where mixology is more than a passion: it becomes an adventure.
IT’S 5 O’CLOCK SOMEWHERE
Popular Cairns French restaurant C’Est Bon recently started a breakfast menu. What you may not know, however, is the menu includes breakfast cocktails, for those feeling like something a bit more adventurous to pair with their morning croissant. So, sure, you could have coffee or tea, but why not an espresso martini, or even a melon path, with Midori, Triple Sec, vodka and soda?
TOP OF THE WORLD
Cairns’ highest bar is Rocco, in Riley’s glass tower. The bar serves up signature cocktails, while you can also drink in a 270-degree view of Cairns city, the surrounding mountains, the Esplanade, and Trinity Bay. Try the Punch Pot: a Moroccan mint tea reduction, with gin, mint and housemade syrup served ritualistically from a Moroccan vaporising tea pot.
A LOVELY BUNCH
Yes, Backyard Tourist has banged on a lot about this sweet deal, but it’s still a cracker: the green coconut cocktail at Thala Beach Eco Lodge. Bartenders pour a secret mixture of liqueurs into a fresh green coconut, and allow it to sit with the coconut milk, husk and all. All you need to know is that it is a bargain, and when you order it, sitting on a deck overlooking the stunning stretch of coastline that is Oak Beach, you soak up a wonderful FNQ experience.
DIVE IN
Several resorts between Cairns and Port Douglas have swimup bars, but one of the best is Peppers Beach Club at Palm Cove. For starters, it’s enormous. There is more than enough room for you to cool off and enjoy the palm-lined lagoon, and its white sandy beach, without worrying about being donged on the head by a wayward beach ball. And the cocktails are delicious. Try the mojito, which also comes in lychee, strawberry, passionfruit or watermelon varieties.
SHHHH!
If you go for a walk down Port Douglas’s Macrossan St after 5pm, you could easily miss one of the best cocktail bars in FNQ. Jimmy Rum’s Mixing Lounge is an amazing bar that is “hidden” from the street – just look for the blackened windows and a red light over the footpath. Inside, you will find antique furniture and a vibe unlike anything else in the tropics. The cocktail menu is extensive, with themes ranging from tiki through to 1920s classics.