By Cat Strom
Cat is the editor of totalvenue.com.au

Address: 99 Marine Pde, Redcliff Queensland
Web: monkomohotel.com.au
Phone: 07 33248 6520

Overlooking Moreton Bay with resort-style opulence and a hint of the Caribbean, is the newly completed Mon Komo Hotel. The Mon Komo Hotel is part of the greater Mon Komo development, which comprises residential living, short-stay accommodation and commercial tenancies, and the hotel completes the precinct by offering entertainment and dining options to both its residents and guests.

Brand + Slater Architects were commissioned to design the fit out of the raw building shell and the brief defined spatial planning requirements that were to include: a bistro/dining area, lounge bar, sports bar, gaming room, function rooms as well as an outdoor lounge.

With the coastline only a stones-throw away a key consideration of the venue’s design was to create a strong relationship between the interior and exterior. It would have been short-sighted to ignore the potential that capturing the ocean views offered, as well as the welcome prevailing breezes the site experiences and the opportunity to reinforce the seaside atmosphere through the Hotel’s natural surrounds. The outdoor lounge, which features on the hotel’s prominent street frontage easily takes advantage of these factors, with equal importance given to achieving a powerful connection that continues through to the internal spaces.

A double height space was conceived for the main lounge/bistro area with full height glazing and bi-folding doors opening to the outdoor lounge. The large volume and abundance of natural light, along with unobstructed views and natural breezes makes the internal space feel like an extension of the outdoors. This two-storey void provided the opportunity to install glazing to the mezzanine function rooms which in turn allows a visual connection to Moreton Bay.

The palette of materials for Mon Komo Hotel was chosen to reinforce the main themes and remained consistent throughout, unifying the interior design concept. Minor variations of application and colour were employed to create individual identification of area function, whilst keeping within the overall scheme. Subdued tones and natural materials dominate the palette with an emphasis on timber and stone. Highlights of colour were used in the upholstery selection and custom carpet design and evoke a sense of playfulness with a Caribbean undertone.

Lime-washed timber features heavily throughout the fit out, impressively spanning across the bulkhead over the main bar and servery. The bar’s timber countertop seemingly floats over a rough-finished stone front while the back bar display provides a mirrored recess that allows the stock to dominate. Large pendant lights hang from the generous void with broad, nautical ropes draped throughout the space, subtly adorning the ceiling and reinforcing the coastal motif.

Floor finishes include large-format stone tilling, custom designed carpets and weathered timber boards. The dominant feature of the Sports Bar is the 40 custom-made craypots that hang from the ceiling. A darker timber was selected for the bulkhead over the bar itself, which along with the stone countertop and stacked timber bar front suggest a more intimate ‘den’ feel.

Throughout the hotel, contemporary, comfortable furniture with clean lines was chosen, predominantly in light warm timber with colourful patterned fabrics on the chairs. Simple ottomans and wicker chairs scatter amongst the timber along with the occasional banquette, giving a varied choice of seating options. The outdoor lounge is bound by a sweeping upholstered seat, with the remaining terrace filled with resilient wicker furniture and white canvas umbrellas.

Sound Advice

JVG Sound Lighting & Visual designed and supplied the audio visual aspects of the Hotel including audio, lighting, automation, and security design for this multi-story venue. They chose quality products that could deliver reliability, were aesthetically pleasing so as to not intrude on the architectural appearance, specification and price.

“It was a very long process to make sure everything blended in with the amazing architecture,” commented Jade Golar, managing director of JVG. “We also only had three months to complete the whole installation, so it was a very tight schedule. We have installed a complete one touch automation system for the client covering all areas of human error and custom programming modules.”

There’s been some serious hardware installed at Mon Komo and the venue’s audio comprises J Audio speakers including fourteen SV6I 6 inch white speakers in the sports bar for room fill, two V12 12 inch front of house left and right speakers for the stage and two SV18 s single 18 inch sub woofers mounted under the stage.

There’s also four J Lighting JL-120 120 watt LED moving head spots and two JL-108 moving head wash lights are running off e:cue software on an Ezi control 22 inch touch panel mounted side of stage. XLR input plates are installed on stage for any band or DJ to plug in a stereo input running through the digital audio processor Bose ESP-88. Samsung commercial plasmas supply visual content in the sports bar.

Mon Komo Hotel is a ‘breath of fresh air’ for the Redcliffe community, exemplifying a new design trend and setting precedence for forthcoming hospitality projects. This fit out hopes to encourage future design and planning in the region to place a greater impetus on the physical connection Redcliffe has to Moreton Bay and the themes associated with a seaside community.

Address: 1 Temperance Lane, Sydney NSW
Web: thegrasshopper.com.au
Phone: 02 9947 9025

This Cocktail Experiment featured in the April issue of Australian Bartender

It was a seriously miserable and cold, rainy day (what’s new right) when the crew at Grasshopper got together to sample some fine rums and mix up some great cocktails for this month’s Cocktail Experiment.

The overcast skies didn’t dampen their enthusiasm however and under the able guidance of their bar manager Glen Wheeler the ‘hopper team put their heads together for a two hour session which resulted in some fine drinks.

A big thanks to Glen Wheeler, John Toubia, Vanessa Hall, Bella Hallinan and Rhyley Wheeler showing up well before they should have been at work and taking part - and to owner Marty O’Sullivan for bending my ear and getting the team involved.

Bella Hallinan

Scuba

• 80ml Santiago de Cuba Rum
• 20ml Midori
• 100ml fresh pineapple juice
• 40ml young coconut syrup

*Build all ingredients into a large glass serving beaker and stir with ice. Top with more ice and fruit garnish. Serve with a pair of ice filled cups.

What Bella says: “The rum flavours are lighter in style - perfect for a summer tiki style drink. My idea was to create a Punch style of drink that you can share; it’s something which could be enjoyed in the sun.”

Vanessa Hall

Cuban Passion

• 30ml Santiago de Cuba Blanco
• 15ml orange curacao
• 30ml passionfruit puree
• 15ml pomegranate syrup
• Good splash of sparkling wine

*Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake hard. Strain into a glass drinking jar and top with sparkling and garnish.

What Vanessa says: “I chose the light, fruity flavours to compliment the delicate sweetness of the rum. I wanted this to be an easy drink to enjoy, one that could be drunk any time of the day, and one that wouldn’t compromise the flavour integrity of the spirit.”

Glen Wheeler

Polynesian Punch-Up

• 40ml Appleton Estate VX Rum
• 20ml Massenez Apricot brandy
• Dash Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters
• 40ml pineapple juice
• 20ml orange juice
• 30ml fresh lime juice
• 10ml orgeat syrup

*Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, and shake hard. Strain into your custom made Tiki mug and garnish with orange slice, lime shell and black cherry. Fill lime wheel with high quality Cognac- and set on fire!

What Glen says: “Working with this rich and complex base spirit I wanted to lengthen out the characteristics and freshen it up with some juices. The final addition of Cognac gives a welcome kick to this Polynesian cocktail, so watch out.”

Rhyley Wellsmore

Volkan

• 40ml Bacardi 8 Rum
• 20ml dark rum
• 15ml orange curacao
• 35ml orange juice
• 35ml pineapple juice
• 10ml orgeat
• 5ml maraschino cherry juice
• 2 wedges of lime (squeezed)

*Combine ingredients, shake and strain over crushed ice. Garnish with a range of orange slices, lime slices, pineapple etc and serve.

What Rhyley says: “Bacardi 8 is a powerful rum and fruit flavours play really well off it (like orange). Anyway, it’s only a ‘real’ tiki drink if it’s got an ingredients list as long as your arm! Enjoy.”

John Toubia

Bundaberg Cooler

• 40ml Bundaberg Five
• 25ml Cabernet Sauvignon (Tannat in a pinch)
• 20ml fresh orange juice
• 60ml Solo
• Dash of egg white

*Shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker and strain into a highball glass. Top with solo and serve asap!

What John says: “The red wine adds a great dryness to this drink and the Solo opens it up a little, as well as lending a subtle sweetness. It’s a cool, refreshing, rum-based beverage.”

Venue: Eve Bar
ADDRESS: 334 City Rd Southbank
Web: evebar.com.au

Will has been behind the bar at Eve for quite a stint now and recently made it down to Sydney for the Australian Bar Awards to see Eve take out Nightclub of the Year - finally! A huge supporter of the bar industry and Australian Bartender, we thought we’d better get him into the mag!

Career:

How long have you been bartending?

I have been in the hospitality industry for 12 years and been bartending for eight.

Before you were bartending what were you doing with yourself?

Studying psychology then realised the skills I obtained by studying I could apply them working behind the bar. Every conversation with a different patron is a case study in human behaviour.

What is your proudest moment behind the bar?

When I made my 1^st flaming Lamborghini it was awesome!

And most embarrassing?

Flairing around with my bar blade and it accidently flew off into the crowd, lucky the patron that was hit on the head ended up being my regular and said: “Will this has to be yours, make sure you keep it on that side of the bar.”

Where have you worked previously?

Metro Nightclub, Queensbridge Hotel, Long Room, Platform One, Monsoons and Beah Club.

What’s your advice for a young aspiring bartender?

Take advantage of knock-off drinks and do not limit yourself to your favourite beer. Try and taste every spirit behind the bar.

Favourites:

What’s your favourite bar gadget?

My bar blade of course. It was hand carved out of an oak tree in my backyard that had been struck by lightning.

What’s your favourite city to visit?

Boracay, Philippines. It’s really an island, not a city, but its so beautiful it needs a mention.

What’s your favourite movie?

Anchorman - isn’t that everyones?

What’s your favourite song?

Afternoon delight - Ron Burgundy

What’s your favourite sport?

Basketball

Describe your fantasy bar.

I’m working in it and if you like a description you’re going to have to come see it for yourself!

What do you drink to…

Unwind after a long shift?

An ice cold Asahi and talk about the nights events have a laugh and think to myself thank-god its over.

Impress a lady?

Drambuie. So I can do a flamer in my mouth which may not impress the ladies to much but gets the fellas cheering.

If you could have a drink with one person (alive or dead) who would it be and why?

Frank Sinatra I don’t have to explain why but if do its because of this classic quote:

“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink, they wake up in the morning and that’s the best there gonna feel all day.“

Other Stuff:

What cocktail trends are popular at the moment?

Not so much a cocktail trend but vodka and coke has come back in. And I have no idea why but recently I’ve been asked to put raspberry into a corona a couple of times? What is going on with this RTD generation?

If you could have a superhuman power what would it be - why?

I would fly because I hate public transport, traffic and lifts that take too long.

If you were to be something other than a bartender, what would it be and why?

A psychologist because I love the study of human behaviour, people are unaware that we are creatures of habit, if you can study them and determine their next move keeps you ahead of the game.

Who’s your hero?

Has to be either Muhammad ali or Michael Jordan, Muhammad ali because he battled adversity and persevered. Or Michael Jordan because his kicks are fresh and anyone who has six championship rings in my book are awesome!

Last drink ever - what would it be?

New York Sazerac in one hand and a Cohiba cigar in the other.

This article featured in the April issue of Australian Bartender

By Philip Duff.
Philip is a staunch advocate of riding the bus without iTunes, supermarket shopping without Twitter and having a coffee with out your iPhone all in the name of creativity. Release yourself…go on put the screen down and listen to some whale chants. Put it down! In saying that, he can best be reached at philip@liquidsolutions.org if you’ve got something creative to show him.

I subscribe to Dilbert author Scott Adam’s theory that we live in a time of stunted creativity, because we no longer allow ourselves to be bored, not even for a moment. Waiting in line at the supermarket? Whip out your iPhone and continue reading Suzanne Collins with the Kindle app. Stuck in traffic? Crank the tunes, or play that French In Three Weeks CD. At a party and you find yourself momentarily alone? Why not Twitter about it? Watching “Californication” on DVR or DVD, it’s seven minutes in and Hank hasn’t boned a chickie yet? Go on, fast-forward that sucker!

We are never not distracted, so there is no thought going on, no chance for an idea to pop into our over-stimulated heads. We used to live in a radio, TV and newspaper world, where you were constantly exposed to influences and information you’d never have thought of: we now live in an iPod, TiVo and blog world, safely insulated from anything that might surprise, challenge or upset our cushioned misconceptions

This creativity cull bedevils our industry on both sides. Drinks marketers are only interested in selling stuff that already sells by the bucket-load. Skinnygirl - a gimmick brand created by some nobody harpie with basilisk eyes from a US reality show you’ve never heard of-started life a year ago as a cocktail premix. Sadly, it sold shitloads. By this summer, there will be Skinnygirl wines, Skinnygirl vodkas and God knows what else - 12 products in all. Twelve! - on shop shelves. Take me now, Lord. As I write, the world’s largest drinks firm, Diageo, has responded to the runaway success of the Pinnacle whipped-cream-vodka brand (zero to 1 million cases in less than 2 years) by launching both Smirnoff Whipped Cream and Smirnoff Fluff Marshmallow. Make it stop.

We are no better. Who really creates cocktails anymore? What was once a mixologist’s trade secret - take a classic cocktail and change one ingredient for a closely-comparable one - has become common currency. Plus, every brand that sells more than two bottles a week has its own ambassador or consultant, who is lumbered with coming up with cocktail recipes morning, noon and night, in much the same way that chained-up bears are milked for their bile in China (although under far less humane circumstances).

Marian Beke (of Nightjar, London), Alex Kratena (Artesian bar at the Langham Hotel, London), everyone at Worship Street Whistling Shop and Purl (London) and Evan Zimmerman (The Woodsman, Portland, USA) are really being creative. The rest of us are just playing Mr Potato Head with classic recipes, or riffing endlessly with pointless, miniscule twists on the Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Sazerac and Martini.

How do we get our grooves back you ask? There are different schools of thought. Have empty periods of boredom. Drive. Don’t read or listen on the bus or train - just gaze around and think. Run without music. Exercise without videoscreens (the mind boggles at the thought). Plan computer-off thinking time at the office, if you have one. Force yourself to be alone with your thoughts (ignore the ones about shooting the Prime Minister, though). Inspiration through other media - forced synaesthesia, if you will - is useful. Read a book on architecture and re-imagine Gaudi’s Barcelona as a cocktail menu. Translate the feel, weight and look of a Tag Heuer into a drink recipe. Craft a cocktail as dark, tragic and southern as a James Lee Burke novel.

Perhaps you should just get off your arse. We live in increasingly coddled societies. Our biggest decision is espresso or cappuccino for breakfast. Maybe creativity needs hardship? A deadline? There is compelling evidence that motivation leads to quality output. And you know this too. How many rich kids have you seen blowing their inheritance on a bar or restaurant or (more usually) nightclub which goes spectacularly bankrupt within months? Loads, right? That’s because they don’t give a shit, those trustafarians. Nothing to lose. Now, how many good bartenders do you know who opened a bar with their savings and their balls? How many of those lost their way? Not as many, I’ll bet. Why not take a few risks? Open a bar? Start a brand? Self-publish a book? Emigrate?

I beg you. Do something, anything, before you find yourself hurrying home to watch reality TV, at which time you’ll be beyond help and should be humanely destroyed before you breed.

With a trip to Jamaica up for grabs for Australia’s best bartender PLUS the design inspiration for the next Appleton Tiki mug it’s easy to see why this is going to be a must win competition for 2012!

This is a competition that has significant bragging rights attached if you win it.

The Appleton Estate Bartender Challenge goes live today (May 11^th) on Facebook and the competition runs for three weeks with entries closing on June 1.

This challenge is not a “popularity” contest but rather a very structured bartender challenge with a strict scoring process based around the two cocktails created as well as some Appleton Estate knowledge, this is designed to find the best of the best.

If you make it through the first round, then round 2 comprises of tasting the finalists cocktails in their venues so that the Bartender can be observed in their element!, from this 6 people will be chosen from across the nation to mix it up in a spectacular grand final night in Sydney, the winner will be picked by 4 industry recognised judges on July 10. This person will be the Australian representative in Jamaica for the Global Appleton Estate Bartender Challenge.

So, if you have what it takes to mix a good Appleton Estate Tiki cocktail and like the thought of jetting off to Jamaica, Tiki mug in hand, then make sure you visit the Facebook page to enter before June 1.

This new bar featured in the April issue of Australian Bartender

48 Burnett Lane
Brisbane CBD
07 3210 2342
superwhatnot.com

Super Whatnot is taking a page from the small bar phenomenon that is typically associated with Melbourne and Sydney. This latest addition, however, is on Burnett Lane in Brisbane’s CBD and is aiming to give the eclectic city mix something to cheer - and cheers - about.

On offer is a sensational array of craft beers from local and international brewers, a solid range of boutique wines, original and contemporary cocktails and a seriously tempting offering of bar food. What’s more impressive perhaps is the seriously cool interior fit-out that’s turned this once-loading dock space into a contender for coolest Brisbane bar space.

This news item featured in the April issue of Australian Bartender

March saw the launch of the Global Bartender Exchange an online network that connects international bartending communities. The project is the brain child of Fraser Campbell - an expat Scottish bartender - and Hannah Keirl who are both working at Melbourne’s The Alchemist.

Through online forums, The Global Bartender Exchange hopes to aid bartenders in efficiently networking before travelling to other cities facilitating jobs, accommodation and local contacts. With each city having its own unique forum, bartenders and hospitality professionals can also share information regarding events, competitions and gatherings.

“This idea came from a conversation myself and Hannah were having one afternoon when talking about potential travelling options and we were figuring out who we knew in different cities around the globe,” explains Fraser.

“Bartenders have at their disposal one of the greatest professional networks in the entire world, that is, if you know the right people.”

Find them on Facebook or Google them on your iBrain.

By Edward Washington

With a resurgence of popularity in Irish whiskey now more evident than ever, we’ve decided to unearth the history, the flavours and the nation itself in this three part series on Ireland & her national spirit.

The history of Irish whiskey is a long tale. Too long for now. But what’s assured is that the Irish were distilling rudimentary forms of what we’d call whiskey long before Scotland’s Registry of Public Treasury listed, “Eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor whereeith to make aqua vitae” in 1494.

Up until the end of the 18^th century the Irish industry was extensively a domestically based one; Ireland was a landscape of individuals manning their pot-stills and making rough, fiery spirit for local consumption. Ageing spirit was neither a practice or a luxury and the spirits back then were, for lack of delicacy, virtually undrinkable by contemporary standards.

That said, these early spirits served a good purpose for Ireland’s population and Brian Townsend, author of The Lost Distilleries of Ireland, points out that a prime enthusiasm for Irish whiskey consumption was to shake off the bleak desolation that many Irish experienced as part of their daily lives. ‘Once the Irish realised the euphoria that this new spirit created, it became the duty of every Irishman to produce it’, Townsend wrote. Not a bad national agenda.

Like any industry that gleans a profit for the government the production practices of Ireland’s distillers greatly improved throughout the Victorian period. This was a time when science and technology was effecting mans’ life in numerous ways and the global distilling industry benefited from the inventions of tools like of the hydrometer and the saccharometer; both these tools allowed for far greater control and accuracy when creating commercial volumes of spirit. Other methods of standardisation, empirical practice and structure also allowed the industry to develop into what we might recognise today.

As the whisk(e)y industry in the British Isles developed there were a couple of factors that initially gave Ireland’s spirit an edge. Both the Irish and Scottish pot-stillers were in effect similar in nature and competing for the same market. Both were based in agrarian practices, with the Scot’s single-malts being primarily made at opportune times during the year when water and grain was available in surplus. To distil the Irish used larger pot stills than the Scots, they also traditionally distilled their spirit three times. These factors were to have a great impact on their product as it gave less variation in the spirits they produced, and also produced a lighter, milder distillate that was agreeable to the ever increasingly sedentary populations of England’s industrial cities.

Victorian England was wrapped with the Irish spirit and it’s said that the Queen herself once stated, ‘The only true Irish friend I have is its whiskey’. Still, despite rapid advances in industrial method the Irishman was a traditionalist by nature and was not keen to let go of his pot-still production ethos. This paved the way for more commercially entrepreneurial methods to take over in the long run and is a key point to note when considering the demise of Ireland’s whiskey industry.

In 1830 Aeneas Coffee released his continuous still to the world proclaiming that it would boost production, relieve overheads and streamline business. The majority of Irish distillers however- advocating tradition - turned him down wholesale, dismissed his contraption and stuck their heads back in the sands of pot-stilling. Aeneas Coffee was an Irishman though, so why did his own kin turn up their noses to a man professing positive revolution?

Reasons abound, but Coffee was a former officer of the whiskey excise who had spent many years combating illegalities in the trade and generally putting himself in the way of loopholes (and smugglers) as they appeared. It is also said that in his time as an exciseman Coffee had done a lot of good for Irish distillers and their cause, however his previous employment was a hangman’s noose in the trade and they were not inclined to trust him.

Another factor for their rejection of his still was that they simply didn’t like the spirit that it produced. It was tasteless and lacking in character and this went completely against the philosophies of the national spirit. The technically advanced nature of the still was also said to unnerve the more traditional pot-stillers, who were largely from farming backgrounds where the simplicities and honesty of chamber-charged distilling was what they understood and trusted.

It should also be noted that the advent of the Coffee still didn’t simply bring a boon of fortune for the Scottish pot-stillers either, far from it. They were also to feel the impact of changing commercial practices and many famous single-malt names vanished from the landscape, either bought up by the large commercial companies or closed down from financial ruin. The important factor in the survival of the Scot’s pot-still industry was that their spirit formed the integral part of the blenders’ product so they would never be left to rot.

But back to the Irish, and whatever their individual reasons for rejecting Coffee were the decision left them on the side road while freeways were being paved. E.B. McGuire, author of Irish Whiskey, put it well when he said: ‘Irish pot distillers, who had traditionally dominated England and her global reaches, were too conservative to notice the changing of the whiskey landscape until the blended whiskies were firmly entrenched’.

McGuire’s words of industry traditionalism are brought to life in The Irish Whiskey Still, (pictured at top) painted in 1840 by David Wilkie. Even thought the work is now viewed as an exceptionally romantic and visually unrealistic impression the life and times of the average Irish person in the mid-19th century, the depiction of a rural Irish whiskey pot-still worked by a local family on a small scale is a window into an industry which at that very moment was stuck firmly in its ways.

Change, ’tis a comin’ lad

This changing of the whiskey landscape didn’t happen over night and it took until the end of the 19^th century for the blended market to usurp complete dominance. During this time Ireland was also beset a raft of serious troubles that would have probably hindered industry growth even if they’d accepted Coffee’s invention in the first place.

The Irish famines (1840s) virtually put the nation to a standstill. Successive failures of the humble potato crops - staple diet of the masses - put immediate pressure on the most basic of living standards. Mass emigration shed Ireland of millions. Domestic issues with imports of grain during and after the famines restricted the ability to feed the population let alone to actually distil. Increasingly Draconian alcohol taxes forced the Irish industry into a hard place and also forced the drinking public to source the cheapest tipple to sooth their woes. Gin from England’s continuous stills was often on the menu.

Between 1840-1860 around 50 per cent of Ireland’s distilleries closed and between 1830-1860 Ireland went from being the single biggest market for spirits in the British Isles to being the smallest. Increasingly vocal and politically influential temperance movements around Ireland also drew down on the consumption of hard spirits, denting market penetration on the home front. The waves of emigration did help to somewhat spread the presence of Ireland’s spirits and beer around the globe as wherever the Irish went it was asked for. However the changing economic and commercial nature of the whiskey industry would leave little room for sentimentality and Irish whiskey entered its Ice Age.

With the turn of the 20^th century things were looking bright for Europe. There was “dazzling hope” for all said Blainey is his Short History of the 20^th Century. Yet there were also, “dark, slowly shifting clouds hovered above the light.” For the Irish whiskey industry these clouds came in the form of two World Wars and a period of economic depression between them, a reduction of distillation volumes decreed by law during war time, violent political and armed conflict with England for the right of independence in the first quarter of the century and subsequent trade restrictions that booked Irish products out of the British market. There was also American prohibition.

During the First World War Britain seriously reduced its pot-still production; grains were scarce so the British Isles was hardly afforded the luxury of a dram. What favoured the column still industry was their operational capacities which produced a near pure alcohol that could be turned into cordite - a product used in explosives and artillery shells. The problem for the Irish pot-stillers (and the Scottish too) was that their industry was solely focused on production for one market - beverage consumption. The commercial continuous still firms also produced huge amounts of yeast for their operations and since regular imports of yeast (for home front necessities such as bread making) from mainland Europe were cut off they, turned this ability into more profit.

Ireland also began a serious campaign for independence (watch The wind that shakes the barley if you want an insight) in the early 1900s and by 1922 they had achieved a partitioned independent state from England. While this was victory of sorts industries subsequently found themselves blocked out of the British market making it harder to sell their goods - whiskey included. Following the First World War the USA was a Prohibition stronghold and Ireland’s spirit was no longer welcome. When the legislation was finally repealed exports once again began, however Scotch whisky had made significant inroads with savvy marketing. It was also cheaper than Ireland’s whiskey so the odds were stacked against it form the get go.

The turbulence of the next 50 years gave little opportunity for the Irish to re-enter the market in significant strength. Yet it has maintained its dignity and seems set to re-emerge in the 21^st century as a real identity in the whisk(e)y landscape. Company amalgamations, new marketing drives and up-to-date promotion campaigns have helped to keep the industry from disappearing and the story of its rebirth is very much alive today. So put the single-malt down for a minute and pick up an Irish. Whiskey that is. And let’s help pick this once whiskey giant up off the ground.

On Monday, May 14, begins the largest global cocktail event in history.

Approximately 200+ bartenders from around the world will compete in an unprecedented competition where only one winner is decided. The deciding factor is speed. It’s the one thing, that at one point (or several) in our career, we all measured who was best. Speed meant you got to keep your job. Speed meant you got to pay… your bills. Speed meant you got to survive and fight another day. If you were not fast, you did not belong.

Andres Walters took out the Sydney leg of the Global competition with a time of 2 minutes 5 seconds - impressive Andres, very impressive. Check out gourmantic.com for more images of the night.

This event is completely unsponsored. It was done through a network of like-minded individuals.

People around the world have donated their time, venues and products. Bartenders, Brand Ambassadors, Owners, Writers and others have worked together to see this through. I do not think there has ever been a time where all of us came together to work on one specific event. Many have looked past money and personal gains. We have helped organize this event because honestly it would be cool to be in a room full of people you either love, respect (or secretly hate) and see them presented with a round of cocktails that is utterly ridiculous and see them make what is probably the worst set of drinks in their careers

Details for the Sydney Event

Venue: Pelicano, 28 Bay St, Double Bay
Time: 6pm onward
Date: May 14

Global Rematch Beeyatch Sydney will be held at Pelicano, 28 Bay St, Double Bay on Monday 14^th May kicking off at 6pm.  Sydney’s finest will be going head to head with the world record holder, Luke Reddington getting pumped to defend his title and to set a new world record.  As always from The Colada Club, great times, fat beats and liquid treats are to be had so come down and support the fastest booze slingers down under!

This new bar featured in the April issue of Australian Bartender

32 Orwell Street, Potts Point
theroosevelt.com.au

The Roosevelt, Sven Almenning’s latest venture to open having just launched EDV in Melbourne, is not simply a new bar to the Sydney scene. In fact the venue site has quite a history and was once owned and operated (as the Roosevelt Club) by Abe Saffron - aptly named ‘the boss of the Cross’ - a man considered to have been heavily involved in Sydney’s post-war organised crime scene.”The basic theme and concept behind the venue is we’re trying to reinvigorate and bring back to life what the Roosevelt was,” explained Barry Chalmers, venue manager. “Obviously we’ll be changing it a little and putting in a new creative direction,” Chalmers explained.

The team is offering a unique style of trolley service which Chalmers is particularly excited about. “We’ve got a really exciting piece of kit,” he says talking about the custom-made trolley and he’s confident that the theatrics and customer engagement of what his team will bring is going to make the difference in the competitive cocktailing scene. “We want people to leave here having that feeling of ‘we had a great time’ and that they really want to return time and again.”

The Roosevelt is split into two major areas, with a ‘back-room’ offering seating space for around 40 people and a set-menu, cocktail degustation style service that Chalmers hopes will make people excited and inspired by so as to return and the front section offering a more casual area where you can perch at the bar, or take a seat and enjoy some small dishes.