Two rollicking recipes from the good times of Memphis Slim’s
“It feels like a whole other place down here,” says bartender Caleb Wilkin.
The Hendrick’s Curious Gin Trail is back at Adelaide Fringe right now, with 10 great bars to visit showing just how good the cocktail scene is in Adelaide right now.
Memphis Slim’s House of Blues is the Gilbert Place basement bar making big waves. As bartender Caleb Wilkin tells Hendrick’s ambassador James MacRae (also known as Wee James) in the interview below, you can get it all at Memphis Slim’s — great cocktails, a grungy vibe, and loud and live blues.
They’ve got two Hendrick’s cocktails on the pour right now, too — get a look at the recipes below.
JAMES: We are here on the hallowed grounds. This is the famous Memphis Slim’s House of Blues. Tell us a little bit about yourself — us how long you’ve been here, and of course, tell us a bit about the venue.
CALEB: I’m Caleb Wilkin, and I’ve been here for a bit over a year. I started in December last year — I love the venue, the blues are just something that everyone has listened to. You just fall right into place. Yeah Yeah, yeah
I guess a lot of what we get to experience here at Memphis is hard to describe sometimes, but I’m gonna ask you to try: if someone has never been to Memphis Slim’s before, what could they expect?
If you’ve never been to Memphis Slim’s, you go in, you have a beautiful cocktail, you get a lot of different levels — you get beautiful service, a great cocktail, but you also get that sort of grungy thing, you’ve got live music going. You can just hang out. It’s a good time. It feels like a whole other place down here.
And do you do a lot of live music?
Live music, every night we’re open pretty much.
Super. And you’ve obviously got some fantastic Hendrick’s cocktails on the menu coming up for Fringe.
We’ve got the Divine Wind here, that’s sort of our take on a little Army & Navy. It’s got some little chive oil on the top there.
And the other one’s the Impastato. And yeah, that’s one of our cocktails that’s going to be on the menu.
If you don’t unfortunately get enough of it in Fringe, you can come back...
If you come back, it’ll still be here. It’s a beautiful fruit cup with the Hendrick’s gin. It’s beautiful. You get lot of that spice fruit flavour. We use a lot of cool ingredients in there too.
Memphis Slim’s is on the Curious Gin Trail for Fringe in Adelaide. Now this is the second year you guys have partnered with us. We’re very excited to have you guys back on this list. Having a little look at the trail, where would you start and also potentially finish your night? Excluding Memphis, because we all love Memphis.
Well, I probably start my night at Roxie’s. Roxie’s is a great like outdoor environment. You get lots of plants everywhere. It’s always nice.
I’ll probably finish my night at Hains & Co. That’s where I finish my night most nights — we’re really close to those guys, they’ve just got the vibes.
Impastato
Hendricks Lunar - Gonzo Fruit Cup - Pickled Strawberry - Cucumber, Mint + Waste Citrus Soda.
Ingredients
- 15ml Hendricks Lunar
- 40ml Gonzo ‘Fruit Cup’ Liqueur (Earl grey infused Hendricks Lunar, House Sweet Vermouth Blend, Peach bitters + Orange liqueur)
- 10ml Pickled Strawberry
- 120ml Cucumber, Mint + Waste citrus soda
- Cucumber + Mint garnish
A Hendrick's inspired twist on the classic Fruit Cup. The Fruit Cup was introduced to America at Napoleon House in New Orleans by the owner Uncle Joe Impastato. He then gave it the modern twist by adding lemonade and cucumber.
Divine Wind
Hendricks Neptunia - Plum Amazake - Hazelnut Orgeat - Burnt Chive
Ingredients
- 50ml Hendricks Neptunia
- 30ml Plum Verjuice
- 20ml Roasted Hazelnut + Plum Amazake Orgeat
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
- 1 dash plum bitters
- 2 drops Shio koji Bunt Chive Oil
Starting life inspired by the Army + Navy; Divine Wind is the translation of the Japanese word Kamikaze; originally used to describe the two winds or storms that are said to have saved Japan from two Mongol fleets under Kublai Khan.