Jax Thai wants to rebel against traditional bar service

Drinking Melbourne is the weekly briefing from drinks writer Fred Siggins, unpacking what’s happening in Melbourne’s bars (and what you can learn from them), sent every Tuesday to your inbox. Get on the list here.

Welcome back to a Hobart-ish instalment of the Boothby Melbourne briefing, Sam Bygrave stepping in again for Fred while he summers in Italy and learns to speak with his hands.

In this briefing:

• how Jax Thai and Rezon Juliodonko are pushing against the “creative limitations of traditional bar service;”
• treading the “fine line” between experience and gimmick;
• and the Melbourne hospitality group which picked up a swag full of trophies at the Drinks 100 Australia Awards Gala last week.

This week, we’ve got an interview with Hobart bartender Jax Thai, who — along with fellow bartender Rezon Juliodonko — is putting on the third instalment of Waiting Room, an art meets cocktails popup that turns Somewhere Coffee Bar into a hive of drinks and creativity for three nights this coming weekend. Waiting Room, they say, began as a rebellion of sorts against the “creative limitations of traditional bar service.”

So it is a little out there, as we get into in the chat below.

Coming as the event does at the close of Dark MoFo festivities, I asked Jax about the inspiration for the event, how they’re pushing the boundaries of what a bar experience can be, and what we all can learn from it.

You can see the interview below, follow them on Instagram at @waitingroomtas, and experience it in person from June 26 to 28 at Somewhere Coffee Bar, 5/118 Elizabeth Street, Hobart.

BOOTHBY: Where did the inspiration for this event come from? The whole “dark fantasy journey of a wizard travelling across the post-apocalyptic world” seems a little out there!

JAX THAI: Honestly it’s very much a loose process of finding inspiration. Tal, our artist this year, finds lots of his creative finding threw off beat fantasy characters like wizards and monsters, so that was our starting point. We know from the start we want to do something that has to do with Journey, and because we have a comic book artist this year, why not throw out the wackiest ideas we have? And post-apocalyptic magic world sticks. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone do that in the form of art exhibition before.

BOOTHBY: How do drinks become “emotional artefacts” through what you do?

JAX THAI: Each art piece is directly correlated to its matching cocktail, and vice-versa. They share the same name, same colour, and suggestive points of similarities. Especially via the drinks’ garnish. For example, this year there is a panel that is filled with monster eyes, so we made a garnish of round chocolate piece, with bright red raspberry gel in the middle to imitate.

BOOTHBY: How long has the event been in the planning?

JAX THAI: Way too long but never enough I feel like! But around three to four months. We all have full time jobs and busy lives. This is a chance once a year we get to do something that screams ‘us’ and fully channel ourselves, so we take our time with ideas, planning and design.

BOOTHBY: What’s the work involved in putting something like this on?

JAX THAI: Finding artists who are keen to collab, finding venues, coming up with crazy awesome ideas but which are still sensible to execute, finding a sponsorship partner (Glenfiddich and The Balvenie this year) that takes an interest in what we do, marketing (which I think is the hardest job), and obviously lots of meetings with everyone that is involved. And of course making the drinks, but to be honest that’s probably the easiest job compared to all, because that’s what we are used to doing, and everything else is all learning steps.

BOOTHBY: What do you want people to take away from it?

JAX THAI: As much as they can or as little, the most important thing is people have fun. Art is so subjective, you might like it or you might not. But at least we want to provide a different creative way to experience art outside of the paint on paper method.

BOOTHBY: How do you see the future of the bars and drinks?

JAX THAI: Drinks have to be more than just tasty these days to be ordered again, they need to create an experience. So I reckon the future for hospitality might see a lot more clever multi-sensory approaches to cocktails, but it’s hard, because you tread a fine line between not doing enough and being too gimmicky.

Around the bars

The Edition Hospitality group has a new bar on the way. Bar Privé will be the “public-facing” cocktail bar, with further spaces for private dining. The bar will open next door to the group’s Reine & La Rue at 90 Queen Street in the city — expect then to open in July.

Fancy Free Group — the trio behind Melbourne bars Caretaker’s Cottage and Three Horses — picked up several awards at the Drinks 100 Australia Awards Gala held in Adelaide last week as part of Bartenders’ Weekender. The group picked up the trophy for both Victorian Bar Operator of the Year presented by Club Suntory, and National Bar Operator of the Year presented by Crawley’s Bartender Syrups.

Three Horses designer, Thandi Stirling, was awarded the title of Bar Designer of the Year presented by The House of Angostura. And Caretaker’s Cottage bartenders and cocktail leads (and joint winners of the 2025 Drink of the Year) Kitty Gardner and Darren Leaney won the Drinks Creative of the Year presented by Monin.