Ivy Pool Club - Sydney’s most sought-after space - a spot to see and be seen…it’s an urban oasis quite like no other…What’s the one thing that’s better than being there… working there…

Merivale, Sydney’s premier restaurant and venue destination is offering the opportunity of the year for bartenders across the galaxy to apply… we are looking for the best of the best…

You will need to have at least 1 years experience in a comparable environment, intermediate-advanced cocktail knowledge, NSW RSA Certificate, vivacious personality and be happy to be shaking things up in 40 degree heats!

If you’re interested in being a part of Sydney’s biggest family… apply now!

www.merivale.com/

The Island2Island Beverage Company has taken on some recent additions to their already stella portfolio - raising the bar for malt lovers all around Australia.

Straight from the whisky outpost of Islay come some new expressions from Bunnahabhain Distillery with the 12, 18 and 25 year old now available. Also included are two examples of “Un-Chill Filtered” Whiskies - the Deanston 12 year old which hails from the southern Highlands and a 15 year old expression from Tobermoray, the only distillery on the Isle of Mull and one of Scotland’s oldest distilleries.

Bunnahabhain is Gaelic for “mouth of the river” and the distillery looks out toward the Paps of Jura - one of the most imposing views you will see on Islay. The remote location and micro environment that surrounds the distillery results in a unique liquid, with a delicate and gentle flavour profile. Using lightly peated, malted barley and pure spring water from the Margadale River Bunnahabhain Single Malt is a true Islay experience.

For further information contact (02) 9672 6440 or info@island2island.com.au

By Naren Young

Jamaica is no cocktail Mecca by any stretch. Far from it. It doesn’t have a classic drink that the world is thirsty for. There’s no Cuban Daiquiri to call their own. No Ti Punch like the Francophiles in Martinique. No Corn & Oil (dark rum mixed with Velvet Falernum and bitters served on crushed ice, as served on Barbados). No Piña Colada. The original Mai Tai, although an American invention, did use Wray & Nephew 17 year old, made here. They do, however, have one of the most revered and celebrated rum histories of any island nation.

The third largest Caribbean island has long been synonymous with dark, molasses rich rums which most of us outside the tropics probably sip contemplatively or mix into a myriad and classic and contemporary libations. It all started in 1749 with the opening of the Appleton distillery, which on a recent trip there, I discovered is located inland amongst sprawling cane fields and lush greenery in the St Elizabeth area.

The most popular rum on the island is the clear overproof Wray & Nephew - a beast of a product made by Appleton that many die hards drink neat. When I’m on an island though - and this was my first Caribbean trip - it’s frozen drinks all the way. I had several Piña Coladas and Daiquiris with every meal and something called a Dirty Banana that, despite its ridiculous moniker, was surprisingly moreish. It was not a time for straight, high octane rum drinking.

There was also a veritable rainbow of flavoured rums, but most of these are consumed by - ironically enough - American tourists longing for a taste of home. You’d no sooner find a dreacklocked Rasta man, sitting in Montego Bay smoking a spliff and drinking a mango flavoured rum than you would a Mariachi sipping a Corona or Margarita in Mexico. In all its forms though, rum is everywhere and so are the ubiquitous blenders that go along with island holidays.

“I had several Piña Coladas and Daiquiris with every meal and something called a Dirty Banana that, despite its ridiculous moniker, was surprisingly moorish.”

I remember the first bar I worked in; the New Orleans Café in Sydney’s north. We had a blender and therefore blended drinks. Then it was onto the Orient Hotel in the Rocks - the second floor ‘cocktail bar’ no less (when was the last time of you Sydneysiders thought let’s pop down to the Orient for a cocktail?) - it actually had several blenders. Even the Grand Pacific Blue Room - Australia’s cocktail bar pioneer in the late ’90s - had a blender on the bar during my tenure. Admittedly, our Poached Pear and Ginger Daiquiri was a sublime Sydney favourite.

Now this once popular, seemingly indispensible, piece of bar paraphernalia is usually only seen in the high volume, lower end suburban bars and of course, resorts. In New York the blender has been popping up again in some of the latest high end bars (such as the new Tiki joint, Painkiller), perhaps as a strange attempt at ironic humour, which is probably lost on most of its patrons.

It’s like putting a blue drink on your menu for a laugh like we did with our Psycho Cobbler at the Bayswater Brasserie or Jacob Briar’s cheeky take on the English classic - the Corpse Reviver Number Blue (both delicious drinks, for the record). Or do like the crew at Seamstress did by putting West Coast Coolers in their fridge. Bring back the fun, I say. For many, this has been lost in favour of geeking out on cocktail chat rooms, arguing the finer points of cocktail etymology, uncovering the original recipe for a drink none of your customers have ever heard of or infusing small dogs into your latest bottle of artisanal Pisco.

Am I suggesting we should all run out and buy a blender for our bars? Of course not. Most blended drinks are awful in the wrong hands with the wrong ingredients. But if it’s these little things that make bartending a little more fun for you and your guests, then why not. Should a plastic monkey, mermaid or cocktail umbrella find its way onto the side of my glass when I’m in your bar in September for BarShow then I’ll be pleasantly chuffed.

36 North East Road, Walkerville, Adelaide
08 8344 8022
www.walkersarms.com.au

The Walkers Arms was first established in 1839, and was gutted by a fire caused by an electrical fault in November 2007. June this year, however, has seen a brand new Walkers Arms come to life.  The hotel is owned by The Dean Group of Hotels who fully rebuilt hotel to include two dining areas, a 14 metre long marble bar and even 20 eco-sensitive accommodation rooms, just three kilometres from the Adelaide’s city centre.

Touted as a family friendly hotel the a la carte and buffet dining is offered through an assortment of modern pub?style options. As a quirk the restaurant also boasts a donut machine capable of producing 1440 donuts an hour!

The design is inspired by renowned French designer Philippe Starck and includes features like opulent sunken lounges, striking designer chairs, gleaming

solid white tables, private courtyard huts with individual TVs and iPod docking stations, and LED promotion screens on the bar. All the bells and whistles for the modern hotel.

The bar boasts a cocktail list with a concise range of ‘velocity’ recipes which take a speedy 45 seconds to formulate. The cocktails are specially derived from Bar Solutions mixologist, Grant Collins.

Lush Life Productions - a New York based production company that shoots video for the major bar, mixology and spirits conferences around the world such as Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans and New York’s Manhattan Cocktail Classic - have confirmed that they will be covering Sydney BarShow.

Lush Life’s Lindsey Johnson says they; “love to cover all of the world’s premiere cocktail and bar shows, and the Sydney BarShow is obviously no exception. We are most excited to see innovations from our cocktail brethren from down under since they are some of the most talented and creative bartenders in the world.”

Lush Life’s presence at Sydney BarShow will promote Australia’s dynamic and ever growing bar industry to the world.

“Sydney is a place like no other- with the bartenders to match,” adds Johnson. “So, we want to capture that to share with the rest of the worldwide bartending community.”

Visit www.barshow.com.au to make sure you don’t miss out on the biggest week for the business of bars.

A true vintage brew - beer made only from ingredients sourced each year and intentionally made by a winemaker to reflect yearly variations. Sound like a pipe dream? Well the ground breaking Endeavour Beer is exactly that - a true vintage beer.

Bringing a background in viticulture to the world of brewing, Andy Stewart - a winemaker with 13 years experience - and the team at Endeavour have sought to combine the two arts of winemaking and brewing in order to create something unique for the Australian beer market.

“I’d love to see beer made like wine, brewed to express the variations in ingredients from year to year,” says Stewart.

Endeavour produces two high quality, handcrafted ales; the 2010 Endeavour Reserve Pale Ale and the 2010 Endeavour Reserve Amber Ale. While both are drinking seriously well at the moment, if your patient and put a couple away for 2-3 years you will be rewarded with complex secondary characters due to the brews both being bottle conditioned.

Endeavour Beer is currently available on premise in New South Wales only, but  stay tuned for further developments.

Contact info@endeavourbeer.com or Andy Stewart on 0407 864 181 for further information.

Yesterday the Daily Telegraph reported that Sydney bar wonderland Ivy has won approval to trade to 4am, but only until 2012. The Hotel’s owner, Justin Hemmes, is now supposedly heading to the Land and Environment Court in a bid to secure a five year extension.

The 4am extension was granted by the Sydney City Council despite calls from NSW Police to restrict the trading hours to 12am; citing, “increased crime activity” on George Street since the Ivy had opened in April 2008.

Hemmes recently won a similar battle through the Land and Environment Court regarding extended trading hours for another of his venues, Tank Night Club, which is also on George Street.

An Old Pal makes new friends

By Simon McGoram

Photography by Steve Brown

Who ever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Well, this month’s How To proves the naysayers wrong by teaching an aged cocktail - The Old Pal to be precise - how to bust a move in the 21^st Century.

The original concoction reportedly makes an appearance in Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails, in 1922, making it one of the first cocktails to list Campari as an ingredient. However, more recent editions of the work claim the recipe came from “Sparrow Robinson, Sporting Editor, New York Tribune, Paris, 1929″. Despite conflicting information as to the drink’s conception, the formula is simple - equal parts Canadian whisky, dry vermouth and Campari. The resultant potion is an intensely flavoured aperitif.

“The Boulevardier was conceivably a modernised version of the Old Pal - the inspirational substitution of sweet vermouth perhaps taking its cue from the rising popularity of the Negroni.”

In 1927, Harry McElhone - the author of Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails and bartender/owner of Harry’s New York Bar in Paris - produced a recipe entitled the ‘Boulevardier’. Printed in Barflies and Cocktails, the recipe is notable for its similarity to the Old Pal. Canadian whisky is substituted for Bourbon - which wouldn’t have been easy to come by during the height of Prohibition when this drink was created - and dry vermouth for sweet. The Boulevardier’s specs deliver a drink which is more rounded than the Old Pal - the sharp edges of whiskey and Campari smoothed by the sweet vermouth.

The Boulevardier was conceivably a modernised version of the Old Pal - the inspirational substitution of sweet vermouth perhaps taking its cue from the rising popularity of the Negroni.

Using Harry’s example we’ve also decided to make what’s old new again. Presented on these pages is The New Pal. The formula we’re working with comes from the Absinthe Brasserie & Bar in San Francisco. It is readily accessible to enthusiastic mixologists thanks to the venue’s barkeeps - Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz - who listed this recipe in their beautiful book several years back called The Art of the Bar. Their New Pal employs a couple of old skool additions like a dash of Herbsaint (we’ve used absinthe) and Peychuad’s bitters. Like the Boulevardier, Hollinger and Schwartz have favoured sweet vermouth over dry, but opted for a straight rye whiskey as opposed to Canadian. Adding a dash of absinthe to a cocktail is a decidedly 19^th century trait but the New Pal refreshes McElhone’s recipe by citing resurging popular ingredients (at least amongst bartenders) namely the rye whiskey component.

So what is the result? A friendly little number though only a new acquaintance you’ll soon find you’ll be getting along like a couple of old chums.

The New Pal

(Recipe adapted from The Art of Bar by Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz)

30ml Rittenhouse straight rye whiskey ‘Bottled in Bond’

30ml Campari

30ml Cinzano Rosso vermouth

1 Dash Peychaud’s bitters

½ Barspoon Lemercier Abisinthe 72%

Add a friendly measure of Rittenhouse straight rye whiskey, Campari and Cinzano Rosso. Add a dash of Peychaud’s bitters and your absinthe.  Stir in a clockwise direction whilst sporting a smile for your chums. Strain into a chilled fancy cocktail glass and garnish with a piece of orange zest.

Oneperth.com.au, a Western Australian based news source, has printed the comments of 399 co-owner Gary Beadle under the slightly sensational heading “Small bar guru slams Perth pubs”.

Beadle, described by the site as a trailblazer of Perth’s small bar scene, has slammed some of Perth’s hippest nightspots and damned others with faint praise in his license application for new venue The Duyfken at 560 Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley, Perth.

Targets of Mr Beadle’s criticism include well known establishments such as Luxe Bar and The Brisbane Hotel - regular finalists and awards recipients at the Australian Bar Awards.

Beadle was particularity scathing of  Luxe Bar of which he was a stakeholder until 2007.

“A late night nightclub sailing under a special facility license, Luxe in its day was the venue that turned the corner in the standard of hospitality to be expected,” he starts. ”But sadly since Geoff Hayward and partners have moved on it has started to get left a long way behind.”

“Opening late, charging an entry fee, and concentrating on big weekends, this venue is sadly nowadays nothing other than an early closing nightclub,” he concludes.

In his application Beadle also makes veiled criticisms of The Brisbane: “An amazing venue run by an amazing team of hospitality staff but sadly as it is such a big venue in the old style beer barn, the sheer volume of customers that have to be let in for this venue to exist financially does not always lead to a pleasant going out experience.”

According to oneperth.com.au the Brisbane Hotel General Manager, Mark Patterson, said the criticism was “water off a duck’s back”.

“I think he’s trying to make a point about how he’s offering a different service,” Mr Patterson said.

What are your thoughts? Are Beadle’s comments out of line or does anything go in the bar business?

Darlinghurst’s swank cocktail pad, Eau De Vie was named Gourmet Traveller’s Bar of the Year at the magazine’s 2011 Restaurant Awards on Monday night.

Eau De Vie was nominated alongside Brisbane’s Crosstown Eating House and Perth’s Helvetica, but  managed to pip both these bars at the post to claim this year’s Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards 2011 Bar of Year title. Making waves since opening late January this year, Eau De Vie is also nominated for no less than five awards at this year’s Australian Bar Awards including New Bar of the Year, Bar Team of the Year and Operator of the Year (single venue).

Eau-De-Vie  owner, Sven Almenning, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, commented that it was the best present he could have hoped for.

“To be honest it’s quite a humbling experience to be recognised in the company of Australia’s culinary heavyweights,” said Almenning, “and we’re of course both proud and happy… we’re over the moon about it!”

Pat Nourse, Gourmet Traveller’s chief restaurant critic and features editor, says that the awards and, indeed, the magazine itself are all about celebrating quality.

“We’re not just talking about restaurants and we’re not necessarily talking about places where you have to blow a million bucks, it’s just about being sincere and getting it right,” added Nourse.

Almenning says that receiving early recognition from both Gourmet Traveller readers and the bar trade in the venue’s infancy is a little daunting.

“If the award is about recognising a bar that strives to deliver a great drinking experience, and that takes a restaurant’s approach to service and quality products then I believe our team at Eau-de-Vie does this on par with the best in the industry,” explains Almenning.

Nourse is enitrely convinced that Eau-De-Vie is a worthy recipient.

” It’s a bar where talking to the person who’s making your drink is as much a pleasure as the drink itself. Throw in the x-factor aspects - the bar-behind-a-bar location, the unobtrusive live music, the bottle-keep, Sven’s unparalleled collection of cocktail antiques - and you’ve got a bar that shows every sign of being here for a long time and not just a good time,” concludes Nourse.

Congratulations to Sven & Amber Almenning and the whole Eau De Vie team!