Drinks At Work with Sam Bygrave

Jamie Fleming discusses the five-year anniversary of Alba Bar & Deli and the key pillars that have shaped its identity: Sherry, jamon, and hip hop. He emphasizes the importance of creating a unique and memorable experience for guests, going against the grain, and standing out in a competitive industry. Fleming also highlights the challenges faced during the Covid pandemic and the opportunities that arose from adapting to the circumstances. He credits the longevity of Alba to taking advantage of opportunities, being part of the conversation, and building strong industry connections. The conversation covers topics such as the reception of the bar in the Brisbane scene, the evolution of the menu and offerings, the focus on Sherry, and the key elements of a great bar. The conversation ends with a discussion about the upcoming fifth anniversary celebration of the bar.Bartenders' Weekender — early bird tickets to the better Bars Summit are now live at bartendersweekender.com.

I’m talking to Jordan Bushell, the global brand ambassador for Hennessy — perhaps you’ve heard of this plucky, young upstart cognac brand that has only been around for — oh, 259 years?Hennessy of course is a well-known brand, one that for many people is synonymous with cognac, and for some people that’s all they know of the spirit. Obviously I think I know a fair bit more about cognac than that, but in talking to Jordan, I got to understand that there is so, so much more to learn about cognac than I realised. I really enjoyed this chat.---A quick note too: this episode is sponsored by Hennessy, because they want to let you know about Jordan’s upcoming visit to New Zealand and Australia this month in support of the Hennessy MyWay 2024 Challenge. It’s the fourth year for this global competition, and the’re launching in Australia and New Zealand for the first time. Jordan will join the Australian and New Zealand Hennessy ambassador Alex Zanarini for five masterclasses starting from Monday 15th April in Auckland, in Brisbane on Tuesday 16th, Melbourne on Wednesday April 17th, over in Perth on Friday the 19th, before finishing in Sydney on Monday April 22nd. Bartenders are invited to come along to an event and participate in Hennessy MyWay, a quest to discover the most innovative and sustainable cocktail creations paired with spectacular serving rituals. On offer are cash prizes of €1000 for top 50 finalists with the top 10 invited to Paris and Cognac to compete in the live final in October.To enter the competition visit myway.hennessy.com, and RSVP to Jordan’s events at https://www.eventcreate.com/e/hennessymyway/

Gin Palace owner Ben Luzz talks about the recent renovations of the bar, the wear and tear that comes with running a bar for almost 30 years. Ben also talks about becoming the custodian custodian of Gin Palace after the passing of Vernon Chalker, and how he keeps a balance between preserving the bar’s legacy and embracing the future. Ben also talks about adding Bijou and Black Kite Commune to his portfolio, the challenges of managing multiple bars on the same street. He also shares his thoughts on the business climate for hospitality in Melbourne, and what makes a great bar.

In this episode I’m talking to the three owners of Ramblin’ Rascal Tavern — Sebastian Cosmo Soto, Charlie Lehmann, and Dardan Shervashidze. When they opened the bar in 2014, they’d come from the best training school for new bar owners at that time: The Baxter Inn. They opened the bar with around $350,000 cobbled together between the three of them and an investor, which they talk about in this episode. And they steered away from the Americana that was a big trend in bars at the time, focusing more on a homegrown culture — but that Swillhouse emphasis on quality was front and centre. “People ask us what kind of bar we are,” Charlie Lehmann told me back in 2014. He said, “Well, we’re an everyman’s bar, we do everything. We do good cocktails, we do good wine, we do good beer — we do shit beer. And lots of shots of cognac.” 

We are living in some interesting times for hospitality, with what seems like a conflicting narrative out there at the moment. On the one hand, it seems like every week there’s a notable venue closing. On the other hand, there's been a bar opening boom in the last few months.

The Rooster Rojo Rumble is looking for six bartenders to fly to Sydney — and one to Greece.Abbie Weir is a memorable, compelling human. The agave specialist for Amber Beverages Australia is a big personality in an industry where there that’s a prerequisite.“This industry is all about personality,” Abbie says in this week’s episode of Drinks At Work. “A bartender can make or break your experience.”I’m talking to Abbie this week because she’s also the ambassador for Rooster Rojo, and together we’re hosting The Rooster Rojo Rumble — entries open Friday 1 March.The Rooster Rojo Rumble is a cocktail competition that does things a little differently: yes, it’s about the drink, but it’s also about your personality and your storytelling.Forget ‘signature serves’, forget about brand calls and ‘rituals’ — great drinks travel the world because of the people who love them.

I’ve got a different episode of Drinks At Work this week — I’m calling it Drinks At Work — The List.It’s about how Jay Gray’s Singapore bar, Sago House, got onto the World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2023. It’s a bit of a different format for Drinks At Work, one I’m hoping to roll out from time to time; it’s more of a narrative piece than the conversational episodes that I usually make on Drinks At Work.It’s all to answer this big question: what does it take to get a bar onto a globally recognised list of the best, like The World’s 50 Best Bars list? 

I met Stu at the Four Pillars Lab on Crown Street in Surry Hills to chat about his experience with Four Pillars, how and why spirits competitions like this new one from the RAS matter, the state of the Australian distilled spirits industry right now, storytelling, and whether, knowing just how many distilleries are out there right now, he would start Four Pillars today if it didn’t exist.If you’ve met him, you’ll know that Stu is a quote-generating machine, and I could fill a weeks’ worth of stories from the hour-long chat we had (although, and I’m sure he’d agree, that would be a little too much Stu). There are a number of digressions and diversions along the way, and you can tell I was clearly having a good time talking to him.

The Drink of the Year Awards is my favourite event of the Boothby events we do each year, and it’ll be back again in November 2024 for the third year. For this episode of Drinks At Work, however, I’m talking to the bartender behind the drink that took the number one spot on the top 50 last year. That is of course Samuel Thornhill, he’s the head bartender at Melbourne cocktail bar Byrdi, and we talk about how he developed the drink, Bad Apple, why it took over a year to get right, and why he almost walked away from the idea altogether — it’s a drink that’s all about fermentation and makes fermented fallen apples attractive. It’s really interesting what he’s done with it.And, given that Byrdi is one of the few bars genuinely pushing the boundaries of the way drinks are conceived and presented in Australia, I also ask Sam about the creative process at the bar, how drinks get on the list, what they look for in new hires and a lot more. Here’s one thing to keep in mind, if you’re keen on working at Byrdi — you’ll be working across the bar and the kitchen, which — with the likely death of the pure play cocktail bar and the blurring of lines between bar and restaurant — is a genuinely interesting approach to bars and one that might be worth exploring further.https://www.boothby.com.au/drinkoftheyear/

It’s a new year, which means that the next instalment of World Class Australia is about to get underway. I think it’s fair to call it the most influential cocktail competition going around at the moment, and the experience of entering, and potentially make the Top 100, can help grow one’s career behind the bar and in hospitality. So I’m talking today to Diageo Trade Advocacy Manager and Australian World Class Ambassador Kate McGraw, along with Eduardo Conde who is last year’s World Class Australia winner and the guy running El Primo Sanchez in Sydney. We talk about the experience of going to the World Class global finals and what that’s like, get an idea of what is different about this year’s World Class Australia competition, and why attending the Diageo Bar Academy Roadshow with Kate, Eduardo, and former global winner Orlando Marzo, will be both beneficial for your career and essential to getting the most out of World Class this year. This is a sponsored episode of Drinks At Work, and that sponsor is Diageo Bar Academy and World Class Australia, but there’s a lot to be had from this conversation whether you’re wanting to enter the World Class Australia this year or wanting to broaden your skills and experience.But if you are wanting to enter World Class Australia this year — and I’d encourage you to do so — the Diageo Bar Academy Roadshow kicks off next week on Monday the 29th of January in Sydney, Tuesday 30th in Brisbane, in Melbourne on Monday 5th of February, on the 6th in Perth, and on the 6th there will be a live stream as well. But first you’ll want to enter your details here https://form.typeform.com/to/DhzroruT to register for the Diageo Bar Academy Newsletter, and give Kate a follow on Instagram at @katelikescocktails to be ready for when the first challenge is announced on February 12.

If the new bar opening boom of late 2023 is anything to go by, 2024 is going to be a very interesting year for the bar and drinks world.And so for the first episode for Drinks At Work in 2024, I wanted to discuss some of the trends that came out of 2023 and what we might see in the year ahead, and to do that I spoke to the ever thoughtful and creative Ross Blainey.Ross is the brand ambassador and creative collaborations lead for Glenfiddich and The Balvenie in Australia, and a good friend not just of mine but of the Drinks At Work podcast as well — I first spoke to him for the show back in episode four. In that chat we spoke about how the whisky world works, but for this episode I wanted to explore how it is that Ross goes about collaborations and what that means for creativity in the drinks world.That’s because it’s in his role as the creative collaborations lead for his brands that I think Ross really opens up what it means to be a whisky brand ambassador. He is someone who enjoys getting to experience the creative process of others — whether that be award-winning and creative chefs like Lennox Hastie from Sydney restaurant, Firedoor, or in fields further away from the whisky world, like fashion, in which he has collaborated with designers and artists like Jordon Gogos and Akira Isogawa. And it’s that love for the creative process that has seen him do some very interesting work.We also talk a little about the great explosion of new bars in late 2023, and look ahead to what we can expect in 2024. Have we reached peak vinyl listening bar with the 10,000 vinyl records amassed on the shelves at the new Swillhouse venue, Caterpillar Club? What has driven the guest shift and takeover phenomenon, and is it on its last legs?

My guest on this episode is Garth Foster. For the last 15 years garth has worked at luxury drinks group Moet Hennessy, in both brand ambassador and business development on a range of brands, among them Ardbeg, Belvedere vodka and Hennessy. But he recently left Moet Hennessy to launch a new Australian rum brand with his longtime friend David Fesq. They’re a company of two, and Red Mill Rum Co. is the product — So I talk to Garth to see how he’s adjusting to small start up drinks brand life after more than a decade on some of the world’s most luxurious brands. He talks about the lessons he learned working at Moet Hennessy, and how that is shaping his thinking for Red Mill Rum Co, how they make their rum — they’re aiming for an uplifting accessible style of rum, says garth — and what bartenders are thinking about their first product.

Welcome to Drinks At Work from Boothby with Sam Bygrave, that is me. We’ve had some time off the podcast over the last month or so, as we were gearing up for the second annual Boothby Drink of the Year Awards — what a great night that was. The number one drink on the night was from Sam Thornhill at Byrdi in Melbourne with his drink Bad Apple, Rob Libecans took out the Bartender of the Year title — if you haven’t seen the full 50 yet, head over to boothby.com.au/drinkoftheyear —it’s all there.Now, if I’m honest, I was going to have another week off the podcast until I heard last week that The Barber Shop in Sydney — which I remember writing about before it opened — is celebrating its 10th birthday tonight. So last week I stopped in to see co-owner Mike Enright and talk about what the last decade has been like for The Barber Shop, what’s learned, and more. It was his first foray into bar ownership, with business partner Julian Train, and from there they’ve added The Duke of Clarence, and bar and distillery Hickson House in The Rocks.

Have you ever thought about starting your own liquor brand? Opening your own distillery? My guest on this episode is award-winning bartender Tim Laferla, and he has done just that. It’s called Damaged Goods Distilling Co., and in this interview we talk about his start in Perth bars like Mechanics Institute, how his time working in London for Michelin chefs and in zero waste venues shaped his thinking, and how he and his partner Pia Papenfuss have gone about setting up the distillery, and why they’re using food waste to make their spirits. He’s a super smart guy, and there’s a lot to learn from his experience.

Simon McGoram is the regional sales manager for Atom Brands, but he’s also been a brand ambassador, a bar owner, once upon a time he was named NZ’s bartender of the year, and he has been a writer, working for a number of years at Australian Bartender magazine as editor and then later, when I was there, as the drinks editor. In this episode, we talk about unnamed whiskies, independent bottlings and how the whole system works — we talk about That Boutique-y Whisky Company and Atom Brands, teaspooning, blended whisky, age statements, floating rum distilleries in Queensland — the lot. This episode is sponsored by Atom Brands and That Boutique-y Whisky Company, which you can get your hands on through Proof & Company here in Australia.

This episode is a recording of a panel chat I had up in Brisbane as part of Paramount Liquor’s Future Proof event — I spoke about the future of the Brisbane bar scene, what it needs, and where it’s going, with three of the city’s finest: Bonnie Shearston, who earlier this year opened the excellent vinyl bar, Ruby, My Dear, and has owned and operated a nunber of award-winning Brisbane-based venues over the years; Jamie Fleming, the guy behind the acclaimed Alba Bar & Deli, one of my favourite places to be; and one of the shining lights of the next generation of bartenders, Andie Bulley, who was then working at Savile Row — this episode was recorded in August — but who is now on board as the creative lead for Evan Stroeve’s soon to open Sydney bar, The Waratah.

Last weekend we held the first Boothby Best bars Victoria awards, and a good times party for 130 of the industry’s best and brightest bar owners and bartenders. It was at The Lincoln, and we handed out a few awards on the night as well as counting down the top 50 bars in Victoria. Caretaker’s Cottage were on hand to mix the drinks for the night with a takeover — it was incredible, an amazing turnout, and a lot of fun. One of the awards we did hand out on the night was the Person of the Year presented by Orlando. The winner was Cara Devine. Cara is a bartender and bar manager at Bomba in Melbourne, but you might know her as the host of Behind the Bar with Cara Devine, on YouTube, where she has over 150,000 subscribers, or as Bartender magazine’s Melbourne-based writer. I do believe however that Boothby haas the honour of publishing her first before she was picked up by Big Trade Media, so I’m pretty happy about that. She is one of my favourite writers to read when it comes to the Australian bar world, she’s an excellent communicator and demystifies the world of cocktails and spirits better than most, and you can read that in her book on cocktails, Strong, Sweet, & Bitter. She’s a great voice for the industry, and I guess that’s why a panel of more than 100 Victorian bartenders, bar owners, and bartendery types voted her to win the Person of the Year presented by Orlando wines. This episode is one I recorded with Cara back in July 2022 when the podcast was just a few months old — in it Cara talks about writing, how and why she got started on YouTube, what works on YouTube, and more. Congratulations again for the win, thank you to Orlando for sponsoring the award.

I hosted a panel talk — one of the most interesting ones I’ve been involved with — for Proof & Company during Sydney Bar Week, called Casa de Agave and I’ve got the recording of that talk for you on this episode of Drinks At Work. we had some big agave brains on the panel — founder of Agave Cartel and the group bars guy for Sydney hospitality group, Solotel, Reece Griffiths; co-founder of the Mucho Group and its bars including the agave-focused Cantina OK! and Tio’s, Jeremy Blackmore; and a special international guest, Jay Khan, the owner and bartender of the Mexico-inspired cocktail bar Coa in Hong Kong, a bar that has been named Asia’s best bar three years running. We talked about the current agave boom, where it goes next, who the winners and losers are in the world of agave spirits, and loads more — it’s a really spirited discussion, with a range of views, and well worth a listen.

This episode is a recording of an interesting one on one chat I had up in Brisbane last month for Paramount Liquor’s Future Proof event — I spoke with bartender and owner of the soon to open Sydney bar, The Waratah, Evan Stroeve. Evan’s a guy with a great resume, he’s worked at Shady Pines Saloon and The Baxter Inn, ran the show at the much-missed Bulletin Place, and was on the opening crew at Sydney bar Re. He’s been heavily involved in issues around sustainability and in addition to crafting delicious drinks, he’s also a deep thinker on all things bar and hospitality.

My guest on this episode of Drinks At Work is Iain McPherson. He’s the owner and bartender behind Edinburgh bars Panda & Sons and Nauticus, and he’s long had a passion for the cold: he’s the guy who developed the switching technique, which employs advanced freezers to enhance the flavour of liquors, and souspression, another freezing technique to help create new drinks.