We’ve been interviewing the people behind the award-winning bars from the 2025 Boothby Best Bars program. Today, we’re hearing from George Curtis, co-owner of Milquetoast in Brisbane’s CBD. Here’s what we’re talking about:
- why a cult favourite menu item was cut from the menu, and why it’s making a comeback
- why Milquetoast is emphasising approachability and doesn’t want to be “greedy” in pricing
- the personality trait in young bartenders that is a red flag in hiring
- and what they’re emphasising at Milquetoast to combat the crunch in consumer spending
2025 was a big year for Milquetoast, the wine bar in the Brisbane CBD that picked up two awards at the Boothby Best Bars Queensland awards back in June. The bar, which opened in the midway through 2024, picked up the title for Best New Bar in Queensland presented by Angel’s Envy, as well as the award for Best Bar Eats presented by Estrella Damm — in no small part, we suspect, thanks to the popularity of their excellent chip butty (which we have the recipe for, right here).
Bar manager Aidan Perkins also picked up a nod at the Drink of the Year Awards in December, with his Caspar Milquetoast cocktail landing on the Top 50 Drinks of the Year.
And there is news in said chip butty department: as co-owner George Curtis gets into below, the butty was booted from the menu last year, but it’s making its return from next week.
Below, George — who also owns CBD amaro bar, Before + After — gets into all things butty, unpacks a little about what has made their bar successful over the last 18 months, and gets into how they’re approaching the year ahead.
BOOTHBY: In your opinion, what is it about your bar that resonates with the bar industry?
GEORGE CURTIS: When we created Milquetoast we had hospo staff in mind with some important elements, such as the late-night dining every night. We wanted a space where hospos could come and have a proper meal and a Martini at 11pm after they’d clocked out or a Caspar Milquetoast and a chip butty, which as you know became iconic. The approachability of the venue has always been a big factor in that respect.
Secondly, I think we’re doing cool things without being obnoxious about it (hopefully!). A lot of effort goes into the cocktail program and the chefs work really hard to create tasty food at a good price point and that’s been really successful. Food is expensive nowadays but there’s no point being greedy about it when we’re located in a literal parking garage. We know what we are. It’s a fun and social place to come regardless of occasion or motive, and it’s a credit to the staff for creating and upholding that feeling. We’re hugely appreciative of the support the industry has shown us since we opened and delighted we’ve impressed people enough to win awards in our first 12 months.
BOOTHBY: How do you describe your bar to people who are only just learning of it?
GEORGE CURTIS: Milquetoast is a wine bar and dining room that serves British-leaning food, low-intervention wine and hyper-creative cocktails. We stop short of calling ourselves a restaurant even though our food offering is worthy of such a title because we want to remain approachable to people who just want a drink or a snack. We don’t want to give the impression that we’re off-limits to casual walk-ins, and that’s also why we don’t take bookings. We’ve always stayed true to the concept in that regard, even when we’ve elevated the food to the levels it’s at now. We believe in the importance of approachability in this economy and being able to say yes to everyone who walks in, not put up barriers like compulsory bookings or requiring a big food spend from each table.
BOOTHBY: What’s the most popular classic cocktail at your bar?
GEORGE CURTIS: We’ve sold two and a half times more Negronis than we have any other classic cocktail. Next best is a Margarita. Negronis make sense for a venue like this I think — although I can’t explain why! Vermouth is wine-based so there’s that.
BOOTHBY: The chip butty is coming back? Why? (Good!)
GEORGE CURTIS: Demand. But we were also quite deliberate with our marketing in the sense that we wanted to create an opportunity to bring it back and build hype around that. It definitely needed a break because it was blocking inspiration for other parts of the menu with how time-consuming it was to prepare, but we’d be silly to leave it off the menu for much longer. This way, we get to throw a big hospo party in January and make a big deal about it coming back. We’ve also had Leah Dunnigan (Savile Row) and Matt Baker (ex-Cuatro Group) beg for a chip butty eating contest on comeback night so that’s going to be a fun if not disgusting thing to watch!
BOOTHBY: Can you describe the attributes you look for in a bartender at your bar?
GEORGE CURTIS: The ability and willingness to listen and learn. The biggest turnoff in young bartenders these days is arrogance. We don’t want that anywhere near what we do so we are serious and deliberate in our background checks, references and our own eye test to ensure that the people we hire genuinely want to be a part of what we’re doing and want to learn from people who have knowledge and experience to offer.
Knowledge and skills can be taught to anyone but changing someone’s attitude and work ethic is extremely difficult, so we want that straight off the bat. We spend a lot of time and effort putting work into our team’s individual and collective progression so we expect something in return and that is respect towards the venue and the other team members.
BOOTHBY: What rough percentage of the sales mix is cocktails?
GEORGE CURTIS: Approximately 30 percent of our beverage sales are cocktails so wine is dominant, as expected. Of our total sales [wich includes food], about 14 percent are cocktails. It’s pretty decent numbers for a wine bar with such a substantial food offering, but Brisbane is a big cocktail city so it’s not surprised us that cocktails continue to be popular.
BOOTHBY: How are you finding business in a general sense - are the people out there spending like they did a year ago? Better or worse?
GEORGE CURTIS: The data says people are spending less and as much as that is apparently true, I strongly believe spending is still good and it’s just that people are much more discernible about where they’re spending their money these days. We always have that in our minds, so we’re very conscious about maintaining great standards and quality across food and beverage and not being greedy with pricing. If people are being more conscientious about where they’re splashing their hard-earned cash, we want to give them every reason to do that at Milquetoast. We’ve had an incredible year — except for a dodgy September and October — but the proof is in the pockets and they are still well lined from where I’m sat.
BOOTHBY: What’s the biggest challenge the bar faces as a business over the next year?
GEORGE CURTIS: Rising costs. It always will be, I think. It’s getting harder and harder each year to keep pricing at an approachable level because every cost of the business goes up. I’m opening a third venue early next year (my second with James from Milquetoast), which gives us a great opportunity to progress our staff and give a couple of them an umbrella role across the two which we believe will make us more efficient, but that doesn’t stop booze tax, minimum wages and other such costs from rising regularly. It’s difficult but there’s no use complaining. We chose this life and it’s up to us to rise to the challenge.
BOOTHBY: What gives you hope and optimism as a bar owner for 2026?
GEORGE CURTIS: Hospitality, despite its challenges and random happenings like Covid and cyclones, is actually quite a pattern-oriented industry and I’ve learned from Before + After and Milquetoast that business does continue to get better as long as you maintain your standards and quality of offering. I look forward to 2026 with optimism in that regard and confidence that we will continue to get busier and more popular as time goes on. People’s creativity excites me and the team here continue to do really brilliant things in the bar and kitchen so I’m really keen to see that continue and taste more delicious food, cocktails and wine next year. I’m also bloody keen for the Bartenders’ Weekender in Adelaide after a couple of years in Brissy!
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