How Matt Linklater developed the cocktails for Tom Sarafian’s new restaurant, Zareh
“No shaken drinks” was the brief — along with a healthy dose of arak.
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Zareh is the much-anticipated restaurant from Tom Sarafian; Melbourne’s master of meze, who made a name for himself in Melbourne as head chef of the now-closed Bar Saracen and since then with pop-ups and collabs around town. Open to the public from tomorrow (but booked out for at least a month), Zareh is an homage to Sarafian’s Egyptian and Armenian heritage, and a welcome addition to Collingwood’s already impressive array of dining options.
To create the cocktails for his first permanent venue, Sarafian has enlisted the talents of Matt Linklater, former brand ambassador for Campari and Diageo, and previously behind the stick at cocktail institutions like Black Pearl and Bulletin Place. I sat down with Matt last week to see how he came up with the drinks for a Middle-Eastern restaurant with limited space, and using unfamiliar ingredients.
“The approach to this menu was very much driven by Tom,” Matt says, “because this venue is so personal to him and his story. So to create a cocktail list that was somehow separate to that would’ve fallen really flat.
“We had a lot of conversations about his past and his travels, and I got to explore the Armenian and Egyptian heritage of flavour and culture,” he says. Seasonality — but in a way that doesn’t require constant changes — and nostalgic elements both Middle Eastern and Western also provided inspiration.
One of the primary reasons I wanted to talk to Matt about this list, apart from being excited to see what he would create with these flavours, was the limitations of a small restaurant environment. This is not the place for a long and complex drinks list, either in terms of prep or execution, so the parameters are quite different to the dedicated cocktail bars he has worked before.
“I was given a couple of guardrails right from the start,” Matt explains. “First of all, no shaken drinks. We felt like the sound of shaking would be a real distraction in a small restaurant where the environment is so important. The act of shaking is such a full stop in a conversation, so eliminating that allows conversation to flow without interruptions. On top of that, it’s a small space, so we only want a limited amount of glassware.”
Perhaps most importantly, the cocktails at Zareh are almost entirely based around arak, the grape-based, aniseed-flavoured spirit native to the Levant and considered the national drink of Lebanon. “I’d never worked with arak before, so that was a challenge, but a really welcome one,” Matt says.
The list he has created is tight and balanced, with equal parts fun, nostalgia, refreshment and surprise, as well as some booze-forward stuff for the serious drinkers, but all with arak playing first chair; for example, an arak Martini and a White Negroni with arak and elderflower.
“It’s important to have those drinks that are going to hit the mark for anyone, even if they’ve never tried arak or think they don’t like it,” Matt says. Like Zareh’s answer to the Amaretto Sour, which has amaretto, fino sherry, coconut water and orange blossom poured over a frozen pyramid of pineapple flavour Bonjus —basically the Lebanese version of Sunnyboy. Matt says his “secret weapon” on this list is the Lion’s Milk, made with Arak Farid, Estancia Raicilla, Midori and ayran — a salted yoghurt drink that offers acid, salinity and texture. “If you don't like arak,” Matt says, “after trying this you will.”
The man behind Zareh clearly believes cocktails shouldn’t be an afterthought, and he says he’s over the moon to have these concoctions as part of his offering. “I’m so proud of the drinks Matt has come up with,” Sarafian says. “I’m so excited to put them in front of our guests. Everything has a reason and a purpose. Matt understands that there’s no need to try to shoehorn certain flavours in just because it’s an Arabic restaurant. The food has all of that, so the drinks he’s created complement rather than compete.”
It’s nice to see that fitting into Sarafian’s vision and the limitations of a small restaurant, rather than ego, seem to be driving Matt’s process and decisions here. “When I do a cocktail list consultation, I hate to create the cocktails and then just walk away,” he says. So Matt will be here at Zareh slinging his original creations a couple of nights a week to make sure his drinks are being received well, make any necessary tweaks and train staff until everything can run smoothly without him.
While Zareh is pretty much booked solid for the next few weeks, they’ll always keep a couple of spots for walk-ins, so get there early to see Matt do his thing, and experience arak like never before — alongside a plate of the best hummus going.
Around the Bars
How You Like Them Apples? Last night I had the privilege of judging a Calvados and cheese pairing cocktail competition at Bar Bellamy with Christian Drouin Global Brand Ambassador Carl Jenny, gracing our shores all the way from Clichy, Île-de-France. Congratulations to Loic Mouchelin of Sante bar in Toowoomba, Queensland for taking out the top spot! If this info hits your inbox early enough, you might still be able to grab a spot to meet Carl at Gin Palace from 1:45pm this afternoon for a tasting (hit up Nouha from Cerbaco to get a spot via nouha@cerbaco.com.au), or catch him kicking about the bars of Melbourne this evening before he takes off for Sydney.
Dressed to Impressa. Taste some top notch Victorian spirits at a free trade tasting hosted by Impressa Liquor at Whitehart Bar on Monday, August 25th from 3pm to 6pm featuring Maidenii Vermouth, Bakery Hill Whisky, Brogan’s Way Gin, Nubillum Distilling Rakia and Noble Bootleggers. Register here and get to know your local independent spirits producers.
Make a Tree Change. Want to plant trees and save koalas? Of course you do! Bar Clara is partnering with the Koala Clancy Foundation for their annual hospo tree planting day on Monday, August 25th from 10am to 6pm. Fill out the sign up form here to be involved. Bar Clara have kindly covered all costs so just make sure you show up, and get some much needed outdoor time. There are only 12 spaces this year so sign up quick.