There are ‘flavours lost to time,’ in this drink from Riley Horspool

Not many bars get to the chance to make it to 12 years of trade, but then again not every bar is Bobeche. It’s a cocktail bar in the heart of the Perth CBD — step in there on a busy Friday night and you’ll be greeted with the comforting aroma of popoprn, and a hospitable team behind the bar ready to make your night.

Leading the charge there is bar manager Riley Horspool, one of the top 25 bartenders in the Espolòn Afterlife To The Bone cocktail competition. Riley has been in hospitality — save for a break here and then — since the age of 12, as he explains in the chat here.

Below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, he talks about why hospo people are people and not something else, and steps us through the Casa Club, his Espolòn Afterlife To The Bone cocktail.

So what do you do here Riley?

I’m the bar manager here, creating a bunch of drinks and sending out popcorn to a bunch of people. It’s not Bobeche without popcorn.

What’s the name of your Espolòn Afterlife drink?

The Casa Club is the drink that I’ve created. Basically comes from a really old martini recipe called the Racquet Club. It was designed to be enjoyed after a round of tennis or a day at the country club. I’ve created more of a sharing serve rather than individual Martinis.

It’s one of those drinks where the flavour profiles kind of lost the time. Originally the drink called for a little bit of white chocolate but when it was published in a few different places around the world they thought that was a mistake, so it got dropped off — it’s like people have forgotten exactly what’s in the drink. So the original calls for gin, vermouth, white chocolate and orange bitters. It’s super simple, super easy but also very dry.

I wanted to sweeten it up quite a bit. So I’ve taken the white chocolate and fat washed the Espolòn Reposado. I’ve also added in for the vermouth a chamomile and mango infusion in there, just to round it out a little bit. And a chamomile bay leaf soda with a little bit of honey in there as well. It’s all combined and then carbonated and served as cold as possible.

Tell us what to expect at Bobeche?

It’s very time of day dependent. We get a lot of after work drinkers. So obviously we’re in the central business district of Perth, lots of after work drinkers where it’s just a lot of beers and wines and snacks and maybe a few cocktails here and there. We’re very much a late night bar though. we get people that come and sit, they might have just come from dinner, they want an after work drink and they’ll sit and stay all the way through to close — big comfortable couches and people don’t want to get up. Fridays and Saturdays are a bit more lively for us. It’s a bit more jovial, I guess. There’s a lot more popcorn around. There’s a lot more people partying and having fun. So we really cover all bases.

How long has Bobeche been open?

12 years. We hope to be around for another 12. We’ve got a few projects happening in bits and pieces to hopefully lock it in and secure us for a little bit longer.

What’s your hospo origin story?

For me, yeah, so I’ve been in hospo basically from when I was 12 years old. My first job was washing dishes, $10 an hour under the table because my mum was a waitress in the restaurant. So it was kind of always there, but I’ve had a couple of breaks here and there to try and figure out if I wanted to do something else. I moved into mining for a little bit, gave that a go. Lifestyle was excellent. Money was fantastic. And that kind of allowed me to travel.

I went to Sydney, I went to Singapore, and tried to experience some of the top bars because I really enjoyed going out and drinking and enjoying hospo. And it reminded me why I did it. I got some incredible hospitality in Singapore. The love I got there was outstanding. I was there by myself and met a bunch of people when they showed me around and reminded me there’s a reason why hospo people are hospo people.

Why do you do what you do?

For me, it’s looking after people, right? It’s creating those experiences. There’s one thing that sticks with me — I always ask this of my staff. I’m like, why are you guys here? What’s your reason for being here? The best one answer that I ever got, was from a girl, she was 22 or 23, quite young, Chinese background, single mother. So she was dealing with a lot of cultural bits and pieces with that as well. Studying full-time architecture and working full-time with us, not here at Bobeche but at another venue. And yeah, just incredible. And she turned around and said, there’s all these places around that people can go to but they choose to come and celebrate with us.

And that’s the thing that stuck with me. It’s not my words, but I use them for everything, right? Like people can go anywhere. There’s lots of options, but they’re choosing us. So it’s kind of like an obligation — a need to fulfil that choice that people have made, you know?

What’s the occasion we might be enjoying the Casa Club?

It really can be enjoyed anywhere. It’s the kind of drink where you can have it here at the bar, you can sit and relax at the bar, you can share it at one of our tables with a group of friends, you can make it at home and keep it in the fridge, enjoy it after a long day’s work or bottle it up and take it to a sports club.

Casa Club

30ml Cacao Butter Espolòn Reposado
12.5ml Espolòn Reposado
15ml Mango Vermouth
90ml Chamomile and Bay Leaf Soda
1 Dash Orange Bitters

For the Cacao Butter Espolon Reposado:
25g Raw Cacao Butter
250ml Espolòn Reposado

Melt the cocoa butter in a pan and pour it into the tequila. Leave this mixture to sit for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes so that the tequila picks up as much of the flavour from the cacao butter. Place in the freezer for 24 hours so the fat solidifies completely. Strain the mixture through a coffee filter, bottle and refrigerate.

For the Mango Vermouth:
10g Chamomile
40g Dried Mango Pulp
750ml Cocchhi Americano

Combine ingredients into a vacuum bag and seal. Sous vide for 2 hours at 70 degrees Celsius. Strain liquid through a coffee filter. Bottle and refrigerate.

For the Chamomile and Bay Leaf Soda:
3 Tablespoons of Dried Chamomile Flowers
8 Bay Leaves
20g Honey
750ml Water

Bring water to the boil and combine all ingredients. Allow to steep for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and strain through a coffee filter. Bottle and refrigerate.

Combine 125ml Cacao Butter Espolon Reposado, 50ml Espolon Reposado, 60ml Mango Vermouth, 350ml Chamomile and Bay Leaf Soda and 4 dash of Orange Bitters and allow to chill to 3 degrees Celsius. Carbonate and allow to chill back down to 3 degrees. Release gas and carbonate again, chilling to 3 degrees. Repeat this process a third time before chilling overnight.

Serve straight from the fridge after a great game of tennis.