QUARANTINI TIME
A toast to the clever booze offerings that helped us see our glasses as half full (with delicious drinks) instead of half empty.
JUICE TRADERS BOTTLE SHOP
Starting an online bottle shop was something Leigh Street Wine Room owners Sali and Nathan Sasi had always wanted to do, but never quite had the time. Then Covid-19 hit and Juice Traders finally came to fruition. “The Adelaide Hills has some incredible producers and winemakers – and we’d have customers in our venue drinking it and asking ‘This stuff is so good, how come you can’t buy it from bottle shops?’ – so we knew there was a market out there,” says Nathan, who announced in July that he was hanging up his chef’s apron to focus on growing the two businesses full-time. “It’s amazing the great opportunities that can come out of a bad situation.”
PS40’S SOFA SERIES
This Sydney bar was one of the first to offer their world-class cocktails in delivery form, with owner Michael Chiem handdelivering bottled tipples on his Vespa. Dubbed the “Sofa Series”, the cocktails encapsulated PS40’s enthusiasm and originality.
JACOBY’S + EARL’S JUKE JOINT: COCKTAILS TO GO
The Enmore tiki bar and Newtown cocktail den both bottled their signature cocktails in playful hand-labelled vessels at the very beginning of lockdown. Now they have become permanent offerings – Jacoby’s partnered with Curatif to release a canned Mai Tai, while the Earl’s range is available at BWS.
CONTINENTAL DELI: COCKTAILS IN A CAN
Success comes in cans, not can’ts – especially when it comes to Sydney’s Continental Deli, which began delivering its popular canned cocktails mid-lockdown. The bar and restaurant’s Mar-tinny – rechristened the Quaran-tinny – was offered alongside Can-hattans and Cosmopoli-tins. Cocktails weren’t the only thing to get the tinned treatment, with soups and stews also on the menu, along with the now infamous flan in a can.
1889 ENOTECA WINE DELIVERY
The team at Brisbane’s 1889 Enoteca is typically known for recreating the robust flavours of Rome.
But during peak-Covid-19 the restaurant moved into the burgeoning wine-delivery market. Vino a Casa was born out of circumstance, but met with a sell-out response, with packs of hard-to-find minimal-intervention wine delivered straight to your door. Its ongoing success has seen it become a permanent fixture.