Welcome to the first 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.
Aster at the InterContinental Sydney is taking the Old Fashioned to new heights — quite literally, with the rooftop bar sitting some 32 stories closer to the stars.
Aster also has — and I think we can make this offical — the best view of any Sydney bar. Offering 270 degree views of the harbour, city, and out to the eastern suburbs, it’s got to be one of the most beautiful settings in the world.
That view is made all the nicer with a drink in hand. As the InterContinental’s director of bars, Mattia Arnaboldi, explains in the Q&A below, they welcome a lot of guests from the US every week, and their go-to drink is often an Old Fashioned.
“They know their bourbon and they know their whisky, they’re very picky,” he says. “Woodford Reserve is definitely one of the best sellers for us, and we’re very happy to work with them.”
But they also need to welcome guests of all stripes — some of whom are less familiar with whiskey and drinks like the Old Fashioned. So, after the Q&A below, Mattia also shares their recipe for the Baguette & Barrel cocktail, a milk-washed riff on the classic Old Fashioned that has broad appeal.
Let’s get into it below.
BOOTHBY: Can you tell us a bit about Aster? What’s your role here?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: I’m the director of bars for Intercontinental Sydney. Aster Bar is our rooftop, premium venue in the hotel. It’s a 270-degree view rooftop, obviously facing the most beautiful harbour in the world — the Opera House and Harbour Bridge is my office every day. It’s a very busy venue. We’re open seven days a week, and we’re cocktail bar with a big, extensive wine list and whisky list. And we’re focusing on guest experience — this is our priority, as a five-star hotel should do.
BOOTHBY: To give them that guest experience, what do you want to the guests feel?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: I call it luxury with a smile. So I want to make sure guests feel always welcome in our venue, it doesn’t matter if they’re in-house or external. And to give a proper experience of Sydney hospitality culture and the bars they can actually provide. And we have a very strong team, and we focus on guest experience every day.
BOOTHBY: You do a couple of Old Fashioneds here — tell us about them.
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: Our twist is a milk-wash. We’re using Woodford Reserve that we infuse with parsnip first, and then we do a fat wash with butter and capers. So you’ve got a little bit of saltiness and roots. We then add it together with Massanez baguette liqueur and Rinomato Bianco, and the citrus we use yellow grapefruit. And instead of using the classic milk for the milk wash, we’re using creme fraiche. So the fermented double cream, which gives a little bit of salty and savouriness on top of the velvety mouthfeel.
BOOTHBY: How does that drink as an Old Fashioned style cocktail, as compared to the original? What’s the difference?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: It’s trying to approach a lot of clientele. Obviously, the Old Fashioned is a whiskey base. This is more of a silky version, and it’s for everybody. And obviously, we try to be innovative as much as we can and try to cover every flavour for everybody.
BOOTHBY: What kind of prep goes into making this drink?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: It’s a few hours. We’re very lucky in Intercontinental. We have a commissary kitchen that we use for bars, we have a small lab. And all our prep is coming from there. So we have a commissary manager who is looking after the prep. In this case, it takes about 10 hours to do the whole process. And we do big batches because obviously we’re high volume.
BOOTHBY: Yeah, what’s the capacity here at Aster?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: 110 people. We do roughly four seatings Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
BOOTHBY: And what’s the atmosphere like here on a Friday, Saturday night?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: Friday is a very full on vibe in a sense. We’re very busy like a proper cocktail bar. We also have a DJ from 6 o’clock until midnight. And we try to play classic disco and funk. Obviously, we have a different certain age, we have a little bit older, mid-30s and mid-40s. And on Saturday, a lot of the younger crowd is still coming up to enjoy the view and a little party.
BOOTHBY: Do you get a lot of regulars here as well?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: Yeah, we have a lot of regulars.
BOOTHBY: How important is that? Because you are a hotel bar, you’ll have guests coming in from overseas and I’m sure you’ll have return guests who come back to stay at the hotel. But then you want to have people who are locals coming in.
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: We do have quite a lot of coming in, a lot of corporates, we do have a lot of conferences in the hotel and around Circular Quay here now, it’s booming. There are a lot of offices and a lot of people that come in regularly, so that means we are doing something right if we have regulars all the time.
BOOTHBY: If they’re coming back for it, the last time was good. We’ve just gone through Old Fashioned Month, are people still enjoying the Old Fashioned?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: Yeah, absolutely. As you mentioned before, we have a lot of in-house guests, a lot of travellers, a lot of them are from the United States. So they definitely come in and enjoy Old Fashioneds. They know their bourbon and they know their whisky, they’re very picky. Woodford Reserve is definitely one of the best sellers for us, and we’re very happy to work with them.
BOOTHBY: What’s the best time for hospo to come into Aster?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: Monday for sure. I would suggest now that the sunset is around 7pm, it’s a good time to come around 6, 7, for pre-dinner drinks. For hospo there is no minimum spend, so you can come in and enjoy our view and our cocktails and we will look after you.
BOOTHBY: So you’re across all the bars in the hotel. What does a day or what does your week look like? Are you often on the bar?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: I’m hands on deck pretty much all the time. I’m dealing a lot in the morning with suppliers and contracts and the hotel side, and then at night time it’s the fun part, I’m in service across [lobby bar] Treasury Bar and Aster. At Aster, during this period of the year we’re very busy so I’m focusing a lot on Aster lately. I’m just helping the team, helping my managers make sure they have everything they need to succeed.
BOOTHBY: How long you been in the bar world now?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: I started in Italy, obviously, when I was 16, and now I’ve been in Sydney for 15 years this year. And I fell in love with this industry in this specific city, and they’ve really looked after me, and I want to pay back as much as I can. I worked at House of Pocket for many years, and then I moved to the hotel industry and Crown, we opened in 2020 and then I got an opportunity to work for Intercontinental; I’m very blessed and very happy to be here.
BOOTHBY: What’s different about hotel bartending to say like the smaller indie bars?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: It’s a step that I chose. I love small venues and small bars because of the vibe, and you create a family. And my idea is, why can’t a hotel do that? So I’m challenging that. I feel like hotel industry in Australia is growing. And I feel like hospitality is growing, and the bars are growing in hotels. So I want to be part of that journey to be able to replicate the family feeling that you have in an independent venue and replicate it in a hotel bar. And the hotel is very supportive, so I’m very lucky with Intercontinental.
BOOTHBY: Well, hotel bars are historically where the great bartenders did their thing, right? And they’d have their regulars coming back to them all the time.
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: I feel like it’s the same. I feel like Sydney is a very strong bar community, and especially in independent bars. I feel like we’re still not quite there yet for hotel bars inside that community, and this is what I’m trying to change. I’m very lucky. I have a very good team, and we’re like a family here.
BOOTHBY: Do you have to wear the name tags up here?
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: No. That’s the first thing I removed. We are not in the 1970s.
BOOTHBY: In Asia, everywhere else, they don’t do it, right? But for some reason, Australian hotel bars, you’ve still got to have the name tag.
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: Look, that’s the first thing when I joined, I was like, we’re not going to wear name tags up here. I mean, I can present myself to the guests.
BOOTHBY: The guest should be able to learn your name without the name tag if you’re doing your job well.
MATTIA ARNABOLDI: Yeah. Our service is about experience. I want to make sure they know my name, and to provide a great experience. I don’t need somebody to read it. It’s all about guest experience. And then the rest will come along.
Aster’s Baguette & Barrel cocktail
- 30ml Woodford Reserve Bourbon, infused with parsnip, fat-washed butter, and capers
- 20ml yellow grapefruit
- 15ml Massenez baguette liqueur
- 15ml honeydew melon cordial
Milk wash ingredients with crème fraiche.
Recipe by Mattia Arnaboldi at Aster in Sydney.
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