Lachlan Bentley (Gimlet, Apollo Inn) on restaurant bars, collabs with Never Never, awards and more

This episode of Drinks At Work is presented by Never Never Distilling Co - you can get a bottle of the Gimlet and Never Never Distilling Co Triple Dry Martini at neverneverdistilling.com.au and to see it in its full glory, you can get it at Gimlet in Melbourne — it’s delicious.

One of the big trends we’ve looked at on Boothby across the year has been the shift away — for the most part — from bars that only sell booze, pure-play cocktail bars.

It’s something I wrote about all the way back in January of this year — what feels like another lifetime ago. Essentially, it picked up on something Matt Whiley was talking about last year, and his prediction that the pure play cocktail bar wasn’t sustainable much longer. “The model of a single cocktail bar that just sells cocktails, it will die,” he said to an audience at a Worksmith event.

Notwithstanding the fact that Whiley opened Little Cooler — a dive bar and cocktail joint that serves no food — with Stefano Catino just last week, I think he’s on to something.

I know I’ve been attracted more to bars where I can get a snack at the same time as a cocktail. Whether it’s something small, like the Doris at Double Deuce Lounge (cubed cheese, cabanossi, hot mustard, and pickled onion — Gilda-style), or something more substantial like the vitello tonnato at Bar Olo in Melbourne, or Dan Gregory’s excellent duck and smoked sausage gumbo at Barry Parade Public House in Brisbane (more on that next week).

What can I say? I like eating at the bar. It’s the best seat in the house.

And there are few bars better to sit at — and eat — than the bar of Gimlet at Cavendish House in Melbourne. If you ask me, it’s the best restaurant bar in the country right now. That’s not just because the food is great, but because the cocktail list offers up delicious drinking, too.

That’s largely thanks to bar manager Lachlan Bentley, and his just departed compadre, Cameron Parish (both bartenders featured on this year’s Boothby Drink of the Year Awards Top 50).

On this week’s episode of Drinks At Work, I talk to Lachlan about the differences between running a restaurant bar and a pure play cocktail bar (and whether you need food in a bar these days as standard); we also talk in detail about their collaboration with Never Never Distilling Co. on the just released Triple Dry Martini, how it came about and how they nailed down the recipe (which, if you’re wondering, makes for a killer Martini).

Lachlan Bentley in quotes

“We tasted several different botanicals all in individual distillates, because we needed a bit more top-line. floral notes, so tasted a whole bunch and landed on chamomile and orris root. We wanted to be smart with the extra botanicals. We didn’t want to shove too much in, so it was kind of all over the shop — we wanted it to be quite considered. When it’s super cold, the way it comes out, like really, really almost like syrupy, which is great when you’re drinking a Martini.”

“I’ve been there for almost five years now, but there’s still things I’m taking away every week. Ways to improve. How do we do this better? In an environment where, you know, we expect a lot from our bar team, and not just the bar team, there’s a level of expectation from all the staff. And there’s a lot of pride in all the staff that work there.”

“The last tick is a practical bar exam, so we’ll sit in front of them at dispense during service and mark them on the way that they engage with guests, with the team, being able to prioritise checks as well as serving a guest; recommending from the list, recommending variations from a list cocktail. it might seem like pretty intense.”

This episode of Drinks At Work is presented by Never Never Distilling Co - you can get a bottle of the Gimlet and Never Never Distilling Co Triple Dry Martini at neverneverdistilling.com.au and to see it in its full glory, you can get it at Gimlet in Melbourne — it’s delicious.