Welcome to Sidecar No Sugar, a weekly Boothby newsletter about Brisbane bars and the people, work and creativity that grounds it. (You can sign up to get it in your inbox each week, right here.) This week, I chatted to the venue manager of Death & Co’s newest outpost in Brisbane.
If you have info the Brisbane bar community should know, please email me contact@beccawang.com.au or send me a message via Instagram (@supper.partying).
I remember the first time I came across the Death & Company cocktail book. It was during service on a quiet weeknight — quiet, as in there was a single party of two in my section drinking wine type of quiet. The cocktail bar I worked at displayed an array of books about bartending, classic cocktails, spirits and how to pair flavours. The velvety black spine of the Death & Co book. Inside, there were recounts of conversations between bartenders, detailed advice for cocktail making and many cocktail recipes from bartenders past and present. I was so invested in the stories that I ordered my own copy. I am certain many bartenders (and cocktail lovers alike) share this experience. Though it’s rare that a bar’s book is just as famous as its venues, it shows Death & Co’s formidable influence on the bartending zeitgeist.
That influence is what makes Death & Co’s arrival in Brisbane feel quietly significant. For years, the bar existed for many of us only in print or at a distance, through stories passed between bartenders, dog-eared pages and drinks recreated behind our own bars. Its reputation was built on rigour, hospitality and a particular philosophy of craft, and now, that’s travelled beyond its original rooms in New York — first to Denver, LA, and Washington DC — before opening in Melbourne last month, and this month in Brisbane (a city that could do with a serious Naked & Famous).
Many are wondering why they’ve chosen to open in Toowong, a largely untapped area in Brisbane’s bar scene. Will this mean that more bars will open eastward? Only time will tell, but for now, below is my lightly edited and condensed for clarity Q&A with venue manager Samantha Katsikas about Death & Co’s first week under the Regatta Hotel.
BECCA WANG: How was the first week of Death & Co Brisbane?
SAMANTHA KATSIKAS: The first week was fantastic, hectic, of course, as any bar opening would be. Seeing months – and for some, years – of hard work finally coming together was magical. The team has poured their energy into weeks of training and long days and watching them thrive in the space they helped build has been both inspiring and deeply rewarding. I’m excited for what the coming weeks will bring.
BECCA WANG: Why did the owners choose Toowong as the location for this branch?