I recently traveled to Shanghai to check out the bar scene there (make sure to get the upcoming print edition of Boothby magazine to read more about it), and was blown away by the cocktails, the service and the incredible array of flavours and styles on display.
And visiting new-ish bar Triple U on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, it feels like a little of the excitement of China’s cocktail culture has also found a home here in Melbourne.
Triple U, the name representing “utopian, urban and unique”, opened with little fanfare about six months ago — in the space that once was home to Par. — and has yet to draw much media attention. But it is a wonderful addition to the neighbourhood, and to the Melbourne bar scene more broadly: packed most nights with students from the nearby universities as Chinese hip-hop sets the tone, this space, and these drinks, are clearly fulfilling a community need.
Before opening Triple U, owner William Wu — Shanghai born and Sydney educated — was an interior designer.
“From interior design to bartending, people think it’s totally different,” he says. “But interior design is about crafting a physical space for people, and a bar is also a space for people to experience.” Will was inspired to get into hospitality because he didn’t want to spend every day in front of a computer anymore. “It’s more interesting to be able to talk to people.”
Watching Will shake a cocktail now, you’d never guess he’s spent less than a year behind the stick.
Triple U’s drinks list is based on the idea of yin and yang, with each traditional Chinese element of fire, water, earth, wood and metal represented on each side of the equation for a total of 10 signature cocktails. The Sesame Dumpling (cognac, black sesame, PX, cacao and Fernet-Branca), for example, represents yin; the Down to the Root (rum, daikon radish, grapefruit, rosemary, and lemon) sits on the yang side. There’s also a list of eight classics, and on the last page, five different house variations on the Ramos Gin Fizz, each incorporating a new element like nori, strawberry or pandan (so fun!), and there’s usually a list of specials as well as a cocktail omakase concept every Wednesday.
Bar manager Casper Huang is the driving force behind this list, his seemingly limitless energy the wellspring of such a wide-ranging cocktail program. Casper brings a decade of experience bartending at high-end hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants, as well as time as a distiller in Guangzhou.
So what are the main differences in the Chinese approach to making drinks compared to what you’ll find in Melbourne? “For me, drinking really spirit-forward cocktails can be quite strange and intense,” Casper says. “So even though we make strong cocktails with plenty of alcohol, we try to make them smooth, textural, and really easy to drink.” For their customers, he says, boozy classics like the Negroni and the Old Fashioned aren’t so popular. “We focus on styles like Punches, Collinses and Sours, and we always incorporate fresh ingredients.”
Those fresh ingredients might include things like bitter melon, which is frozen and juiced with green apple and pineapple, then combined with gin, lime, tonic and sour apple liqueur for a vividly green take on a Collins. Garnished with fresh dill, it almost tastes healthy. Like most of the drinks on Triple U’s list, the sugar is restrained, just enough to balance the bitter and sour elements, which is refreshing when cocktails in Melbourne seem to be getting sweeter.
Along with Chinese flavours, Casper also takes cues from local produce. “One thing we’ve learned is how amazing Victoria’s dairy is,” he says. “So we try to use local milk, cream and butter as much as possible in our cocktails.”
Casper and Will are currently preparing for the second edition of their yin and yang cocktail menu, which should be ready on June 15th, this time based on the eight trigram symbols known as bāguà, used to illustrate the nature of reality as a set of mutually opposing and complementary forces, which are also matched to the eight directions of the compass. I’ll definitely be back to try them all.
At a time when many of Melbourne’s cocktail lists seem to be simplifying, shortening and retreating to safe, easily recognisable classics, Triple U is saying screw it and pulling out all the stops with a fun, over the top list — one that’s deeply rooted in Chinese flavours and philosophy and with a solid grounding in the classics. Fitzroy has always been a marvelously multicultural community, but until recently its cocktail bars have been largely Western-influenced. Now with Moondrop doing mahjong and mixology on Gertrude Street, and Triple U bringing some Chinese yang to Fitzroy’s cocktail yin, we can happily gaze East through the bottom of a glass.
Around the Bars
Naarm to New Orleans. The Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards Top 10 Nominations were released last week, with Melbourne very well represented across multiple categories. Dominating the list was Caretaker’s Cottage and Three Horses with co-owner Rob Libecans nominated for International Bartender of the Year, Caretaker’s nominated for Best International Bar Team and Best International Cocktail Bar and Three Horses getting a nod for Best New International Cocktail Bar. Michael and Zara Madrusan also scored a nomination for Best New Cocktail or Bartending Book for The Madrusan Cocktail Companion. And with Bar Snack in New York, headed up by Aussie-born Black Pearl alumnus Iain Griffiths also on the list for Best US Cocktail Bar and Best US Bar Team, it’s an impressive list of over-achieving Melburnian bar boffins.
A Little Byrdi Told Me… This week, Byrdi is launching “Ephemera by Byrdi” a new wine and snack driven concept that will see the experience morphed into something more immediate, fluid and stripped-back. Featuring a list of 10 cocktails changing weekly, this new iteration of Byrdi is “designed to evolve constantly alongside the seasons, the market, and the people within it,” according to their media release. “Ephemera is about impermanence,” says co-founder Luke Whearty. “The best moments in hospitality are fleeting. A perfect ingredient season. A conversation across the bar. A menu that only exists for a week. We wanted to build something that embraces that feeling entirely.”
