It’s raining on Alex Day, and it’s my fault.
Alex is in town to oversee the opening of Death & Co. Melbourne, the world-famous New York bar’s first outpost outside the USA. We meet on Flinders Lane and are shunted out of Code Black coffee to a bench outside the cathedral when the sky opens up on us. We seek refuge under an umbrella in Fed Square while a group of scouts sing Polish folk songs loudly-amplified from the stage. Perfect.
It’s hard not to fanboy a little talking to Alex, a founder of one of the most influential cocktails bars in the world. The ideas that sprang from his bar — things like the deft employment of sherry, mezcal and interesting amari in classically-styled cocktails — are now standard practice in good bars, but were revolutionary in 2006 when D&C NY first opened its doors.
Death & Co. now has outlets in Los Angeles, Denver and Washington, D.C. as well as the original East Village venue, and I’m sure it comes as no surprise to anyone reading this that last month they opened an iteration of the bar right here in Melbourne (with my wonderful wife Cara Devine at the helm no less — now you know why I took over this newsletter), and with another soon to open in Brisbane.
Given my fanboy status regarding both Alex and Cara, rather than try to tell you about the venue from the least objective viewpoint possible, I figured it would be good to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. So I waylaid Mr. Day for a chat in between hectic opening weekend services. The following is a condensed version of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
FRED SIGGINS: How have the first few days of service been?
ALEX DAY: My role in this process is really taking the ideas and relationships that my business partners have formed and shepherding them into reality. I’m actively involved in the lead up, but once it’s up and running, I’m like, you guys are doing your thing. So I mostly just stand at the pass and make all the bartenders really nervous.
My role is really to to drive us towards operational excellence, and within that there’s paying attention to a lot of details, looking at the composition of the room, the balance of lighting and the music, and yes, wash lines and the integrity of the product that goes out in the glass. But if we’ve done our job well, what we consider excellent on our end is already known to the team. And that’s very much true here in Melbourne.
So back to your question about service last night, it was great! And of course there are also one million things I want to see evolve in the space as humans interact with it.
FRED SIGGINS: I like that you said evolve rather than improve. That’s very diplomatic of you!
ALEX DAY: Well, it’s an intentional word. I’ve learned to really respect the evolution of these spaces. I’m not naturally geared towards being patient with something that I’ve spent thousands of hours intellectualising and planning for it to then be in the hands of actual humans and all the changes that come with that. But the inevitable reality of the universe is that it always changes, it always evolves, and I mean that in the true sense of the word. It has to adapt to survive, and through that adaptation it becomes more of place for people. And so I’ve re-centred myself in this whole process to not only accept, but really celebrate the evolution, because that’s what, in fact, gives a place soul.
FRED SIGGINS: So why Melbourne?
ALEX DAY: The idea came about when were were over here in Australia seven years ago doing a speaking tour and some pop ups. It was an excuse for Dave and I to come explore Australia, which I’d always wanted to do. But there was also the subtext of, as we were looking towards our future, where can we grow this thing that’s so special to us? We went to Perth and Sydney which were great, but when we came here there was this sense of comfort and alignment with the industry folks we met, the style of venues, the mode of hospitality, the warmth that was extended when you entered a bar and sat down. And all these things just felt like, oh, this place has the same cadence, we have the same rhythm in our approaches. It just felt very natural.
FRED SIGGINS: Has there been anything about this Melbourne version of D&C, just in the short time that you’ve been here, that’s made you go, huh, that’s different but really cool. Are you already starting to see any of that evolution you mentioned — starting to imagine how D&C going to be different in the Melbourne context?
ALEX DAY: One of the things that’s made me most excited about where Death & Co. Melbourne will go is how comfortable the team has gotten behind the bar or on the floor in a relatively short amount of time. And, I mean, we’ve put so much on them. There’s so much training, so many expectations about what they should know, and the fact that they aren’t just white-knuckling it, but that they’re actually laughing and having fun with their guests on night two? It makes me so happy, and it absolutely circles back to why Melbourne resonated with us in the beginning. That deep culture of hospitality and nurturing people is already coming through on the team.
Photos: Fred Siggins
FRED SIGGINS: Why have you partnered with a group like Australian Venue Co. to open these bars? As a pub group they’re not necessarily an obvious choice.
ALEX DAY: Even opening in different states in the US hard, so if you take that internationally the practicalities become even more difficult. Any group of individuals or a company that’s based locally is going to be really important to navigate the realities of an opening, be it compliance, be it real estate, be it construction, all these things are so different. You guys call electricians “sparkies”! I didn't know that.
I can understand why someone might ask why we didn’t partner with a smaller operator or somebody who’s more clearly in the same sphere as us, like another cocktail bar. The answer is that there are amazing cocktail bars here. We’re not going to teach them anything. But AVC wants to learn how we operate, how we approach what we do on a product level and on an experience level. And on the other hand we are, frankly, learning so much from them. They operate on a very large scale, so how the hell do they do it, and do it so well? There's something very attractive about AVC and us both growing considerably through this partnership.
FRED SIGGINS: Final question for you: Many folks who get involved in bartending as a career have the ambition of opening their own venue one day. If there was one piece of advice you would give to your younger self or that you would give to somebody who's thinking about doing it, with 20 years of hindsight under your belt, what would that piece of advice be?
ALEX DAY: My joke answer is always “don’t do it!” But really, I don’t believe that. The entire exercise of opening your own bar, or pursuing anything that expresses a vision, is perhaps the most fulfilling, challenging, maddening process to go through. The best advice I can give is to have eyes open to the challenges that are ahead, to seek guidance from those who have done it, especially those who have failed at it, and to use that information to shape your experience. It will be hard, it will be expensive, it will drain you of your motivation. But if you get to that moment when the lights turn down, the music goes up, the first guest walks in and they sit at the bar and they have that first sip — it’s the best thing I've ever experienced. The drug of watching somebody have that first cocktail in one of our venues, there’s no greater feeling in the world.
Death & Co. is now open seven days a week, 4pm-1am at 87 Flinders Lane in the CBD.
Around the Bars
There are so many new rooftop venues opening in Melbourne! As of last Friday, Disuko in the former Madame Brussels space above Bourke St. is open and trading. Expect fruit-forward cocktails, sake tastings and sushi. Here are a couple of photos of what that looks like:
The Standard X Hotel has just opened its rooftop bar to the public as well, so here’s a photo of the epic 270 degree views of the city and Fitzroy you can see from up there while sipping on prosecco cocktails out of a can from a vending machine:
And after years of renovation, The Waterside Hotel in the CBD also opened for the first time on Friday under the umbrella of Sand Hill Road group, sporting seven levels including a rooftop bar.
Sam Bygrave
