Inside look: a luxe new listening bar with sake and cocktails at the fore

Cara Devine is off this week, busy judging at the Australian International Distilled Spirits Awards in Melbourne — she’ll be back next week.

Is sake about to have a moment?

I don’t know many bartenders who don’t like sake — there’s something in the flavour profile, often a little umami, sometimes funky, that tends to excite people who work with drinks for a living. But knowledge of the category isn’t exactly high; the language barrier is an issue when it comes to identifying brands and styles.

But there is interest there. Which is why Bar Selecta, set to open tomorrow in Melbourne, is a bar we’re excited about.

Below, we’ve got a brief overview of what you can expect at Bar Selecta when it opens, as well as a gallery of photos to get a feel for the interiors. After that, we’ve got my conversation with Bar Selecta co-owers Michael Tan, Kelvin Low, Joey Tai, and Masa Hisaike, where they talk us through the concept, the design touches, and the drink program.

Okay, let’s get into it.

Billed as a neighbourhood Tokyo-style listening bar and inspired by co-owner and designer Michael Tan’s visits to Japan, Bar Selecta opens on Wednesday 2 July — you can get a look at the lush mid-century interiors below.

The listening bar has a big focus on creating an immersive music experience, they say, but they’ve paired that with a drinks program from two of melbourne’s leading cocktail and whisky minds, co-owners Joey Tai and Kelvin Low (The Elysian Whisky Bar). There are three pillars to the drinks at Bar Selecta: cocktails, whisky, and sake.

To help demystify the sake category they have fellow co-owner Masa Hisaike on hand; Masa has managed a number of sake bars and was most recently at Melbourne’s Case de Vinos.

Bar Selecta is open from Wednesday to Sunday, and you can follow them on Instagram at @barselecta.au, and check out the menu at barselecta.co.

Below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, is my conversation with the Bar Selecta owners about what we can expect from the small bar with big ambitions.

What’s the big idea behind Bar Selecta?

Michael: We’re really excited with Bar Selecta. It’s really a real homage to bar culture, but at the same time also really thinking about the full experience and incorporating the music element. The big inspiration really came from some of these places that are happening in Asia, especially in Japan, where these really beautiful, small, intimate bar venues, but which are really taking that next level jump into music programming and in a broader sense, the bar culture and the craft of service. My background is more in design, and I love music and obviously vinyl records and so forth, and I think as we all get a bit older you sort of go back to what you remember growing up. I remember LPs and stereos and what Dad used to have on the shelf, and I thought, wow, this is a real combination of what was old is new again. And how do we elevate bar culture into this beautiful intimate space where music, service, drinks, just warm community could really be really impactful for, I guess, for people here in Australia and in Melbourne.

I went on a personal journey a few years ago in Japan and had a first-hand experience in a lot of these places. And I thought, wow, it’d be amazing if we could do something like that in Melbourne.

When I had a chance to come back to Melbourne, I was able to make contact with Kelvin and share the idea of what I experienced. And I think we really hit it off in terms of the synergy of the service, the bar and the music. And that led to myself being introduced to Joey and Masa.

It’s located in Hawthorn behind Glenferrie Road — southeast suburbs, and it’s down a little laneway. So you do actually have to go and find it. So it’s got all the aspects that we love about Melbourne, you know, finding places where you have to go a little bit further than the main road.

We’re very much going to be more of a spirits-focused venue. Led by Kelvin, Joey and Masa, and showcasing sake too, which is something that we’re really excited about to explore too as part of the drinks program.

So how big is the place? What’s the capacity for the bar?

Michael: The main bar is a 10-seater. It’s a really intimate small bar. But we do have a courtyard and a sunroom adjacent to that, which will allow us to have a maximum of 40. So if we’ve got larger groups, they’ll go over there.

Kelvin: And really be immersed in the music as well.

Right, yeah. So is that DJ playing most of the time or some of the time?

Michael: Some of the time. We’re going to have a program where our internal staff like Masa, he’ll be doing more of the weekday drops — Masa’s got a real love of music. But we are aiming to reach out to selectors or DJs and they’ll be able to be do some guest programming.

This type of concept is about making more of a holistic experience. We’re thinking about having the music of certain eras, but also Joey and the team will showcase drinks of that era. So really we’ll just transport you into this experience of era, genre and style of drink. And I think that’s where it’s going to be really exciting.

So does that mean the menu will be changing often?

Joey: Yeah. It will be seasonal, based on seasonal flavours and a combination of Japanese influence and modern traditional techniques. I think because the capacity of the bar is small, we want to make it simple but interesting and changeable. Same for the whisky and sake, which will also be quite seasonal.

Michael: As we get to know our patrons as well, we’ll get a good sense of what kind of styles they’re going to find really interesting to try. I live on this side of town too, so I know the demographic here is quite interesting because being in Hawthorn, you’ve got the university crowd, you’ve got an older crowd, obviously an established family crowd. So it’s going to be quite an interesting melting pot of taste to take care of.

That’s cool. Yeah. What kind of hours are you gonna be doing? You’re gonna be like seven days, five days?

Kelvin: Starting with five days.

Yeah, will you have much of a spirit selection? Are you’re gonna have a lot of bottles or is it gonna be a focus on a particular spirit category?

Kelvin: So, cocktails are the main thing, and then sake is actually the second focus after the cocktails here.

How are you going to approach selling that to the world? Because it’s one of the categories of drinks which is a bit harder to get into if you know nothing about it, right?

Kelvin: 100 percent, people are intimidated by it, But we’re gonna break it down real easy. We’re gonna go with flavour camps and then we’re gonna relate it to the music component as well — like easy listening or rock and roll, something like that, right? So people look at that, they know what to expect. This is where Masa comes in, because Masa used to manage sake bars.

He’s really strong with sake. Joey as well, Joey has just finished her sake course.

It’s something I’d love to learn more about. So, Masa, what kind of sake would you have on there that is going to be for people who don’t really know too much about sake?

Masa: Well, since I expect most of the crowd are not super familiar with sake, we are trying to stock many sakes that are very approachable, very fruit-driven, very modern. Something easy to drink.

Right, you have a couple that are bit more interesting and a bit more for the connoisseurs, yeah? How would you describe those ones?

Kelvin: Funky and interesting.

Michael: Out there.

Masa: Funky, something very pronounced, very full-on.

Kelvin: You've been to Ante right in Sydney? I would say those sakes, I would throw into the funky camp — they're big umami-driven sakes, a lot of yeasty notes, some of them taste like soy sauce. And it's really crazy right? Some of these modern day sake brewers, they're just breaking the rules. They’re like, why not have fun? Some of them brew their sake and they chuck in a whole batch of tomato juice, and it’s simply labeled margarita — there’s basil in there as well to complete the margarita pizza. There’s a lot of crazy ones. These days, some sake producers, the modern ones like Masa mentioned, they don’t even classify themselves. Back in the day, they would call themselves Junmai Daiginjo or Junmai Ginjo, these kind of things. Now they simply give themselves a name.

Right, okay.

Kelvin: And they don’t even tell you the polishing rate of the rice. They don’t want the consumer to be absorbed into those kind of conformities.

Masa: I think that kind of information just intimidates customers.

Kelvin: Exactly, just drink this and know this flavour. That’s all you need.

Right, it’s like putting PPM levels on a bottle of whisky. It’s not for everyone.

Kelvin: Not for everyone and not everybody wants to know at the same time. But if you’re geeky enough, obviously if you dig deeper you’ll find this information.

It’s one of those things where you want to have that information for people who want to know it, right? But you don’t want to stuff it down people’s throats and confuse people — people just want to have a good time.

Joey: Absolutely. And there’s growing sake drinking culture in Australia.

Kelvin: That’s whole point of the bar, right?

And what about the whisky?

Kelvin: The third component to the bar is the whiskies. Joey, Masa and I, all three of us are super strong with whisky so there’s going to be a whole bunch of fun independent bottlings there as well.

Will you have an Asian focus on the whiskies or is it all world whiskies?

Kelvin: It’s gonna be world whiskies with a bit more of a focus on Japanese.

Michael, with your design background, how would you describe the feel of the place that you’re designing?

Michael: So it’s very much set in that mid-century time period. So around that late 60s to 70s, so really beautiful veneer woods, mid-century style styling and the showcase will be this beautiful bar where we’ve rendered it in a thick cloth material. It’s got that real curvy edge to it and a very controlled browns, oranges, and black tones. That’s gonna be visually the colour scheme that we’re going with. We’ve got this beautiful glass orange bricks, it’s hard to explain in words, but when you’re there, it just glows in amber all the way through the room.

So what time would we be trading to? actually, sorry. Will you be doing any food at all?

Michael: So we don’t actually have a kitchen set up in the bar because just due to limited space, but we are aiming to have some more light crackers and snacks and things to go with it. So less on the cooked food, but there will be bar snacks to match. But in the courtyard area, we’re hoping around, you know, when the weather is half decent to pull out a barbecue, hibachi grill to do some skewers and stuff like that. I think on a Sunday afternoon, you know, we may open a bit earlier and everyone loves to walk their dogs around here and, I think it’ll be a nice excuse. I’ll smell the yakitori going off and come down the lane.

Kelvin: We also have plans with friends to do pop-up kitchens, set up a truck or set up a hibachi.

Wonderful. In terms of who’s gonna be working in the bar, you guys are all pretty busy, I’m assuming. Who’s gonna be in the venue?

Kelvin: Joey and Masa, full time. Michael will be guest DJing every now and then and the music program is going to be written by Michael.