Welcome to the next in a series of stories showcasing one drink, one bartender, at one great bar. This series is made possible by Brown-Forman's Elevate program — to learn more, contact your Brown-Forman representative.
When it comes to great cocktail bars, Brisbane’s Death & Taxes is as inescapable as its name suggests; it’s open seven days a week, from the afternoon, and it’s fair to say that the bar has become a Brisbane institution.
It’s a bar that celebrates spirits — its back bar holds over 700 bottles — and home to some of the city’s best cocktails, as venue manager Liam Willoughby tells us below.
BOOTHBY: What’s your role here Liam?
LIAM WILLOUGHBY: I’m the venue manager of Death & Taxes, a cocktail bar in Burnett Lane, Brisbane City.
BOOTHBY: Yeah, what’s the big idea behind Death & Taxes?
LIAM WILLOUGHBY: We are a whisky and cocktail bar. We’ve got a massive back bar of spirits, mainly Scotch whisky.
BOOTHBY: What’s vibe in here, on a busy weekend night? What can people expect in terms of atmosphere?
LIAM WILLOUGHBY: We do a sort of table service vibe in terms of our way of approaching service. So we greet people at the door with a host, and then we seat them down. We drop the menus and orders and we take all their orders from the table. It’s normally busy. We’ve got our booths out the back full. We’ve got the bar full. We have staff on the floor taking orders and the guys in the bars pumping out drinks. So yeah, it’s a good vibe on Fridays and Saturdays. Always busy, but that’s how we like it for sure.
BOOTHBY: Talk to us about the drink you’ve made for us.
LIAM WILLOUGHBY: This is a drink that I put together on Glendronach 12. It’s a very sherry-forward drink, it’s got a good amount of Glendronach 12 in it, and then you’ve got 10ml of oloroso sherry in it just to kind of accentuate those sherry flavours in the Glendronach and compliment them well, without making it too sweet. Then you’ve got just a little bit of dry vermouth, round it out a bit with its herbal notes. And then you’ve got a little bit of Calvados in there just to give it a crisp, clean apple finish — it resets the palate ready for you to have that sherry bomb hit again on the next sip.
That was the goal for this drink — just really show Glendronach as the hero spirit, and bring out what makes it so special.
BOOTHBY: How long have been bartending for? How did you come to be working here at Death & Taxes?
LIAM WILLOUGHBY: I’ve been bartending for about four and a bit years now, nearly five years. It was just mainly pouring beers and all of that. And then I got approached by a man called Mr. Jacob Francis to come and work at a bar called Antico, our sister venue just down the road from Death & Taxes. And I started there and it just opened up a whole world of cocktails and spirits to me that I really didn’t know existed. I just wanted to learn everything I could, and I was around people who knew so much more than me. And the biggest part that changed my perspective was that they wanted to teach me. They all invested so much time into just bringing up my knowledge and my skills.
From there I ended up running Antico, and then I went to our other sister bar, Dr Gimlette, and worked there for a little bit. And now Death & Taxes, which is where I’ve made my home out of the three.
BOOTHBY: You’ve got a lot of spirits on the back back. How many spirits are up there?
LIAM WILLOUGHBY: Last time I counted? 700 bottles. We’ve got a very extensive list that we drop in front of people if they want to read it. Sometimes it can be bit jarring, so we take the time to run them through it, find out what they like. And the same goes for cocktails. We run them through our menu of 20-plus drinks. But if they also just want something that’s not on the menu, a classic, a riff on a classic, we can cater to all of that.
BOOTHBY: Unlike a lot of bars, you folks are open in the afternoon, right?
LIAM WILLOUGHBY: Seven days a week, it’s busy, it’s always running, 3pm to 1am Thursday to Sunday and then Friday and Saturday 2pm to 2am. So it doesn’t stop, it’s great.
BOOTHBY: That’s a long day.
LIAM WILLOUGHBY: It’s a day, it’s a big day.
Flight Risk
Ingredients
- 45ml The Glendronach 12
- 15ml Christian Drouin Apple calvados aperitif
- 5ml dry vermouth
- 2.5ml oloroso sherry
- 5ml sugar
- 2 dash Angostura bitters
- 1 dash orange bitters
Method
- Stir all ingredients with ice in a mixing tin.
- Strain into an Old Fashioned glass over block ice.
- Garnish with an apple fan with a brandied cherry skewered through.
Recipe by Liam Willoughby at Death & Taxes, Brisbane.
Nestled in the Valley of Forgue in the majestic Scottish Highlands, The Glendronach Distillery has been dedicated to crafting the very finest Single Malts since 1826. Here, our distinct, characterful spirit is matured in rare Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso Spanish oak sherry casks, each one selected exclusively from the bodegas of Andalucía, Spain. This exquisite duality creates the signature richly-sherried style of our prestigious Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
Sam Bygrave
Sam Bygrave
Boothby Staff
Drink Responsibly. The Glendronach is a registered trademark.
