Boothby Brisbane is our weekly newsletter briefing unpacking what’s happening in Brisbane’s bars, and talking to the bartenders and operators shaping the scene — sent every Wednesday. Get on the email list here.
Welcome back to the Boothby Brisbane briefing after a couple weeks off, thanks to the super big fun times of Bartenders’ Weekender in Adelaide last week. We saw loads of you from Brisbane and Queensland more broadly — thank you for making the effort to come down and get involved.
Okay, in this briefing:
- an interview with Pete Hollands, the guy behind the 2026 Boothby Best Bar in Queensland presented by Never Never, Frog’s Hollow Saloon;
- he talks about doing away with block ice (and why): “I have a vendetta against block ice. I’m over it.”
- he also talks about the benefits in not overthinking things: “My personal motto is measure once, cut twice. It has worked well for me.”
- the All Time Great Queensland bar looking for a new bar supervisor.
Pete Hollands opened Frog’s Hollow Saloon four years ago, and in the time since, the bar has become something of a CBD institution. The bar, which is led by general manager James Gamble, has picked up numerous accolades along the way, and its early success has seen Hollands go on to open two more bars (Alice, and Shaman), and acquire The Alliance Hotel.
So off the back of the bar’s most recent accolade — that of the Best Bar in Queensland presented by Never Never at the Boothby Best Bars QLD Awards back in May — I spoke to Pete to get an idea of what makes the bar tick, and how he has grown as operator during that time.
Also: is block ice going to become a thing of the past? Pete may have convinced me.
BOOTHBY: Let’s talk about Frog’s Hollow Saloon. How’s business there?
PETE HOLLANDS: It’s good, we’re very fortunate. Every time I talk to friends around the country, I’m aware that we’ve been quite fortunate in Brisbane. Housing costs are going up, the cost of living is going up, but the CBD is still strong enough that the knockoff crowd is always gonna exist. And as long as you’re offering something that is good and enjoyable, there’s enough people to fill a bar that only holds a hundred.
I think we’ve really established ourselves as an institution and been able to break out of targeting purely the hospitality crowd. We’re well-known among the corporate crowd, even the country crowd — during the NRL Magic Round, we get a lot of country folk come in and see us. We get the fancy night out crowd, the before and after dinner, casino-goers. The reasons and the occasions for people to come into Frog’s are really varied, which means that we’re quite fortunate to have three rushes a day, which is nice.
BOOTHBY: That’s great. How’s the team been over the the last four years?
PETE HOLLANDS: We have our ups and downs. People fucking crack the shits at each other sometimes. But it’s important you have your knockoff and you chat it out and you get over it. I think that’s something that’s really important; it’s all well and good to have these accolades, and the idea is that you only see the good things. But we’re like any other venue where shit goes wrong, stuff breaks, people get annoyed. It’s how you deal with it and how you bounce back, which I think makes our team a really, really strong team.
BOOTHBY: When it comes to the cost of living, and with the price of booze always going up, is there anything you do at Frog’s to keep things accessible to punters? Is that something you are thinking about?
PETE HOLLANDS: Yes, absolutely. I have a vendetta against block ice. I’m over it. The punters don’t give a shit about block ice. They do not fucking care.
BOOTHBY: What do you want to use instead?
PETE HOLLANDS: When I first moved to Melbourne, let’s say 2012, ice was just like party ice. Right? And Eau de Vie was the hot bar at the time. They were pretty new. And they had a Hoshizaki machine and it was the talk of the town, they had Hoshizaki ice. Holy fuck.
BOOTHBY: Now every bar has a Hoshizaki ice machine, right?
PETE HOLLANDS: It’s pretty commonplace nowadays. But Hoshizaki is not seen as the value it is. The cubes are pretty massive. They’re holding temperature well. And it costs you nothing. So we pulled block ice at Frog’s. Shaman has had no block ice from the start, and our cost of goods there are fantastic. It means we can charge our house Margarita on Arrete tequila is $23.
BOOTHBY: That’s amazing.
PETE HOLLANDS: Let’s say block ice is almost certainly gonna cost us at least a dollar, that means I can knock $4 off a drink. You’re gonna be pretty fucking rich not to not appreciate four dollars off on a cocktail.
BOOTHBY: It’s a a big psychological difference too.
PETE HOLLANDS: To jump over that $25 mark is huge.
BOOTHBY: Let’s talk about you. You were awarded the Queensland Person of the Year, which was voted for by your peers. How did you feel to get that award, Peter Hollands?
PETE HOLLANDS: It honestly sits a bit uncomfortably for me. I don’t think anyone would point to me and say, Pete’s such a humble guy. Because I know the areas in which I succeed, I know the areas in which I fall down.
BOOTHBY: Where do you succeed?
PETE HOLLANDS: Well, I didn’t want to say that. I think being able to break down and look at the market honestly without without bias. Without fear or favour to what I think people should want. And then also to challenge my own assumptions, and know when to really back myself, and when to know I’m pushing ahead for no reason. My personal motto is measure once, cut twice. It has worked well for me. That’s not to say that you should not be prepared. But you shouldn’t always look into all the next steps, you shouldn’t be afraid to take the leap if you think it’s a good go. Or if you’re on the fence, just have at it — dive in and just begin.
BOOTHBY: What are the areas where you think you fall down, or could improve upon?
PETE HOLLANDS: I think now as we grow, one of my biggest faults would be not having enough time to spend with individual staff members. There’ll be times that I’ll walk into the pub and there’ll be someone cleaning, mopping the floors in the morning, and I’m like, I don’t know who this person is. I remember having that experience when I worked for big venues, and you’d see the owner walk through and yeah, definitely there’s an element of intimidation.
BOOTHBY: Yeah, there’s a remove there, right?
PETE HOLLANDS: Yeah, and I hate that. I really don’t like it. I think that it is a reality of getting bigger, because that’s where you have to really lean on your team, and have a good team of managers to be that person who can fill that role of mentor.
BOOTHBY: What is your favourite thing about Frog’s and what it does well?
PETE HOLLANDS: I’ve said this in a few interviews before. It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever achieved in all my hospo career, and it is this one concept that we’ve delivered at Frog’s. It is this cultural concept and vision for the team, past and present and in the future, and has really grabbed their imagination and inspired them to all go towards the same direction, which is that we are the best conversationalists. That’s the team goal. It’s more important than cleaning the bathrooms at the end of the night. It’s more important than knowing your whiskeys, more important than making a nice cocktail. The number one thing that we do, the number one thing that we’re famous for, is that we are the best conversationalists.
And so at Frog’s, when you sit at the bar, everyone’s gonna come and say g’day to you. They’re always chatting to whoever sits at the bar. That’s by far the best thing about Frog’s, right? Whenever I go to a bar, I don’t order cocktails. I don’t really care what’s on your menu. It doesn’t interest me. I wanna go have a beer and then I’m really hoping that someone’s gonna come over and chat to me. That’s something that I think we deliver at Frog’s really well.
The Last Word
Thinking of moving ship? The Gresham, a previous winner of the All Time great award at the Boothby Best Bars QLD Awards, and the winner this year of the Best Hospitality Team presented by Campari Academy, is looking for a bar supervisor and paying between $70,000 – $79,000 per year.
