Time Out Sydney Bar Awards

Barry Chalmers 'en-trophied' at last year's Time Out Sydney Bar Awards  

Bartenders - they're a sordid bunch.What with the boozing, rubbish chat and... no that's about it really. But boy howdy are they a fun bunch to party with! Having your own drink in hand not only makes them tolerable but a heck of a lot of fun too boot. And this coming Monday (October 24) you'll get you're chance to raise a glass with them and to them at the Time Out Sydney Bar Awards held at Sydney's latest live entertainment venue The Standard.

It's a great chance to celebrate Sydney's dynamic and quite frankly booming bar scene with a load of great bars and fine chaps nominated for a gong. Stand outs include Shady Pines Saloon up for, well everything, Gardel's Bar for Bar of the Year and Best Bar Food, Eau De Vie for Cocktail Bar and Bar of the Year and of course all those up for the People's Choice Award - an award voted for by the people for the people. The Finalists for the People's Choice Award are: Corner House, Eau De Vie, Grandma's, Love Tilly Devine, Pocket, Passage, White Hart, Shady Pines Saloon, Stitch, and Time to Vino.  

Even if you don't care a hoot about who wins on the night Lennox Hastie (Etxebarri) is doing a pop up restaurant at the event, not to mention the fact that you'll be able to drink your skin full of Buffalo Trace cocktails with amazing bands and DJs pumping out some beats. There will also be the unveiling of the Time Out Bar Guide 2012 which includes a couple of reviews by yours truly.

It will be a gas. Grab your tickets ($99 for snacks and drinkies - $69 for Time Out subscribers) here. 

Happy 5th Birthday to Gazebo!

Gazebo is one of the first bars I ever visited in Sydney. October 2006 - I had just come fresh off winning New Zealand Bartender of the Year and David Spanton - Bartender's editor had kindly invited me over to Sydney to judge the Australian Bartender of the Year Competition alongside the likes of Dale DeGroff and Angus Winchester.

It was a beautiful spring day - one of those Sydney stunners - and sitting outside at the brand spanking new Gazebo Wine Garden drinking German Riesling I thought to myself - yeah I could live here. Of course I wasn't to know that Gazebo's space was unique in Sydney, in fact, this town was place that really under utilised it's near perfect climate. Why aren't there still more places which understand alfresco drinking and dinning in Sydney?

But I digress. Gazebo was a fore-runner and inspiration for the many wine bars now opening up in this fair city. Enomatic wine systems, Mosel by the glass, casual, but knowledgeable and slick service this place was always going to be a winning. Hats off to Gazebo for five fine years. You might just be of age to go to school, but you've been schooling Sydney-siders on how to drink for years. I wish the team many happy returns for the next five.

Here's what the birthday guests will be drinking this evening as Gazebo cuts the cake:

Gazebo's Giggly Rose

The Giggly Rose

(Makes 6)

Bunch of mint, leaves picked

Petals of 3 unsprayed roses, plus 6 small unsprayed roses to garnish

3 shots (90ml) gin

1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice

Ice cubes, to serve

750ml bottle sparkling white wine, chilled

Rose syrup:

150g caster sugar

1 Tbsp rosewater

Chill six tall glasses in the fridge. For the syrup, place sugar and 100ml water in a pan over medium-high heat. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve sugar, then remove from heat. Stir in rosewater, then chill until it has cooled completely. 

Bruise the mint leaves and rose petals in your hands to release their aroma, then stuff them into the chilled glasses. In two batches, combine gin, lemon juice, rose syrup and plenty of ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake well, then pour into the glasses and top up with sparkling wine. Tuck in a rose to garnish, then serve immediately with a straw.

NB. For the month of October $1 from everyone of these beauties sold will go in aid of the Wayside Chapel.

The PrePay Cocktail

What's old mate Nosferatu doing here? Read on...

If you've met me then you know I'm fairly easily impassioned about any cause high or low (especially after a couple of my high proof concoctions). Whilst this particular blog isn't meant to be the poster board for my ravings some things just can't be ignored. Inefficiency and illogicality have to be two of my pet hates and both these abhorrent traits can be found in the dastardly Sydney Buses PrePay system.

For those of blissfully unaware of the workings of inner-city Sydney public transport I'll quickly explain the ins and the outs. On weekdays would-be passengers catching a bus in the CBD between 7am and 7pm must purchase their tickets before boarding a bus. This ruling is employed apparently for the benefit of the commuter with savings, and efficiency promoted as the key motivators.

Whilst it is true that buying a 'Travel Ten' is cheaper than buying tickets individually, the cost of taking the bus in Sydney has gone up 15% since the scheme was introduced. Efficiency is the also the exact opposite of what has been created too. Drivers with a till and ticket machine in front of them will march you off the bus if you don't have a ticket despite them being perfectly able to sell you one on the spot. This often means you will be forced to miss your bus and queue in the rain with other scorned and weary travelers at a ticket booth operated by one surly, arithmetically challenged, retailer during peak hour.

I ask you who the prepay system benefits? Sydney Buses and their employees? Most definitely. Tourists, infrequent service users and commuters? Most definitely not!

My last horrific bus ordeal on a stormy autumnal Sydney evening saw me not only miss my bus and get drenched whilst waiting to buy a ticket, but also took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get from Circular Quay to Pyrmont - on the other side of Darling Harbour! Understandably by the time I got home I was in need of a drink. I felt I had earned one.

Being in the middle of my Parched March charity bar odyssey, I ended up going to a few bars. My 'excessive brand loyalty' to the Parched March cause did cost me the morning after. I was in need of a remedy for last night's indulgence and it was with this in mind that I created the PrePay Cocktail - available only on weekdays between 7am and 7pm. And only to those who have paid for their efforts from the night before the morning after. 

Admittedly The PrePay Cocktail is a simplified adaptation of the Bax Beet Pinot. Individually bottled and served in a Burgundy glass, Tippling Club's (Singapore) creation is an earthy mix of fresh beetroot juice, the indomitable hangover cure Fernet Branca, Antica Formula vermouth and lime juice. 

The PrePay Cocktail, deliciously sanguineness, is served in a rather Gothic over sized chalice representing the the life sucked out of us all by the vampirishness of bureaucracy that has us following rules, regulations and codes as opposed to common sense.

The sanguineness PrePay Cocktail

The PrePay Cocktail
45ml Fernet Branca
90ml Biotta Organic Beetroot Juice
30ml Gently hand-squeezed pink grapefruit juice (to avoid bitterness)

Stir as best one can whilst bleary eyed. Strain the blood red mix into a chalice. A few of these in quick succession will revive the corpse, dust the brain and open the eyes.

I'm Parched Az Bro

No, before you ask, it's not another clichéd sobriety month, in fact, Parched March is quite the opposite. That's right, Sydney's only month long celebration of bars and drinks is back and this year it's shaping up to be bigger than ever.

This hair brained scheme was dreamed up Amy Cooper a couple of weeks before March 2010. The idea was to create some positive press for bars in a media landscape that was otherwise pretty negative - after all Sydney has a dynamic and colourful bar scene that should be celebrated not deplored. Copper approached Bartender magazine and 4bars and the idea to visit 30 bars in 30 days was born.

In 2010, I joined Amy in her charity bar odyssey and found the task of visiting bars day after day enlightening. 30 bars within the time frame is totally achievable - even with a full time job to hold down. And whilst even the most sensible of drinkers is prone to over indulge in beverage alcohol upon occasion we found that for the most part the month could be tackled responsibly. The key was to enjoy a venue's bar food offerings, meet up with people and converse instead of antisocially imbibing and visit bars during the quieter periods week. If you haven't indulged in social drinking during the earlier part of the week it's definitely to be encouraged - I've long be a proponent of the fact that going out of Friday and Saturday night is quite possibly the worst time you could choose.

Last year we raised money for our two animal charities using a sponsorship like scheme. Whilst this was effective we did realise that it was a bit rich to ask for money from people to  donate to charity when we were spending our own money in bars. This year we came up with an eloquent solution that spread the burden over as many people as possible. Participating venues have agreed to offer special drinks for the month (often with the help of suppliers in terms of bonus stock) from which a percentage of their profits for that drink will be donated to our charities - SDCH and AWL Queensland.

If you haven't done so already head along to www.parchedmarch.com to check out all the cool bars we've got signed-up and perhaps even consider setting up your own team to participate in this year's cause. At the very least come and join me over the month - I'm already feeling a little parched az and so will be kicking the month off in a couple of bars tonight!