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The big news from Melbourne this week of course comes from Hong Kong, where the awards ceremony for The World’s 50 Best Bars was held last Wednesday night. Unsurprisingly to anyone who’s been paying attention, our very own Caretaker’s Cottage has made the list again, this time coming in at number 19, making it the highest ranking bar in Australasia. This is the bar’s third appearance in the top 50 in just over four years of operation, cementing for themselves, and Melbourne, a new legacy among the world’s best bars.
I sat down with Matthew Stirling, Rob Libecans and Ryan Noreiks, the three owners of Caretaker’s Cottage (and the recently opened Three Horses), yesterday morning to have a chat, get their reactions to making the list for the third year running, and hear their impressions of Hong Kong and where the global bar scene is at right now. The below is a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
FRED: Firstly gents, congratulations.
ROB, MATT & RYAN: Thank you!
FRED: How was the trip? What was Hong Kong like for people who weren’t there? Tell us about the experience.
ROB: This year was fucking cool, man.
MATT: Epic.
ROB: We’re used to being there with a few other Aussies like the Maybe Sammy team, and we might see Luke from Byrdi here and there or Hayden from Above Board, but this year felt like a whole caravan rolling through, there were like, 30, 35 Aussies there, and it was really nice.
MATT: We had an event at Honky Tonk’s Tavern with Tlecan from Mexico City and Panda & Sons. It was a sick lineup that included some of the people we really respect. It was just a good time, regardless of the work aspect. And then there was an event at Bourkes featuring Old Love’s and The Waratah and that just made me proud. So there were lots of really cool moments where it was nice to see the mates we’ve been lucky enough to meet around the world because of what we do, but also to be in amongst it with all the people we respect from home, because people should fucking know these bars.
ROB: It’s everyone in the world from the bar community coming to one place, so I got a good sense of some venues that I’ve never seen and now I just desperately want to visit.
FRED: What does it mean to you all to have made the list for the third year running? That feels to me like an important legacy in the history of Melbourne bars. There’s some consistency there. It’s not just like, oh, Caretaker’s is like the hot new bar in Melbourne, so it makes the list one year and then everyone goes to look at the new shiny thing.
ROB: For me, you know, we never opened up a bar to make the list. But once you’re in it, sure, you don't want to be the flash in the pan.
MATT: We actually had the conversation when we first opened that we didn’t think this bar could ever be considered for World’s 50 Best. We’ve all worked in those places, but we opened it going, hey, we’ve kind of made our bed here and it’s not going to happen.
ROB: We’re acutely aware of how far we are from a lot of other countries in Australia. Our location is the thing that makes this business what it is, but it’s also the hardest thing when you talk about being in the 50 Best. It is the thing that is against us, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
FRED: Do you feel pressure to stay on the list now that you’ve done it three years in a row?
ROB: Pressure’s for tyres, mate.
RYAN: I think there’s definitely pressure, but I think we’re pretty good at turning that pressure into a normal part of what we do. I think the three years we’ve been on the list have been awesome, but I’ve felt like we’ve earned it by just being ourselves. We haven’t changed the way we do anything. We’ve always just worked on trying to make this place the best version of what we wanted it to be when we first opened up. This year specifically, we’ve allowed the staff to take it and run with it, which is really good to see.
MATT: Yeah if I reflect on the last couple of years, we used to say when the awards would come around, ‘pressure is a privilege’, and the crew would look at you a bit like, ‘oh fuck.’ But when we say that now, people are like, it’s just Tuesday. Everyone has the accountability, the ownership, the confidence. It’s not an abstract thing. It’s just coming to work and just really digging in.
FRED: You’ve obviously fostered an amazing team and you’re letting those guys step to the forefront, so it must be nice to see that happen and still getting recognition globally.
MATT: Yeah, early days we said, if this place requires us to work in it for it to work, it’s not a functional business. And so now people might be a bit surprised, like, oh, you’re not there, and I’m thinking, we shouldn’t be. The answer in my head is, we’ve got Eddie running the venue, Darren and Kitty are across drinks, we’ve got Tom in the bar, various other people who are running departments within the business, and I think it’d be wrong if we were somehow not just letting them do their jobs.
ROB: We need to give people space to do that. For our growth, just as much as theirs. We don't want to be working here every day until we’re 60 years old. We’re a lot more ambitious than that.
FRED: Being lucky enough to travel to these sorts of events, what are some of the global trends that you’re seeing? What are the things you’re really excited about in the bar world right now?
ROB: The best bars on the planet right now are the ones doing their own thing. Like Pompette in Toronto. It’s immaculate. Tlecan in Mexico city. There’s nothing like it in the world, but it feels like it’s been there for 100 years. Bar Leone in Hong Kong, it feels like it was just transported from inside [owner] Lorenzo Antinori’s head — these images and feelings from all the little corner places that he grew up in around Rome, just materialised in a city where it shouldn’t work. And it’s perfect.
RYAN: Non-bar bars.
ROB & MATT: Yes! Non-bar bars — fucking brilliant.
MATT: It’s bars that nail time and place, but it doesn’t feel forced. Places that aren’t trying to be a bar, but just trying to be a space for people.
RYAN: These are places that are extensions of their owners.
MATT: Totally. It’s the ability of the person to articulate ideas into a drink or into a space. The people who are really good, they don’t struggle to convey an idea in whatever they make.
ROB: Iain Griffiths opened a place in New York called Bar Snack. It’s an East Village gay bar that sells Guinness. It’s fucking fantastic. But that is who Iain is. So the trend is, swim in your own fucking lane.
FRED: I think that’s a really interesting point because you do still see people opening bars that feel like they’re plucked from Pinterest. So, for you guys, what was the process in terms of creating a bar that you felt like was just out of your own mind and out of your own heart?
MATT: We wanted a pub.
RYAN & ROB: Yeah.
RYAN: We’ve always gravitated towards just loving pub culture in Australia.
ROB: We all have a critical eye for detail, but what we love is simplicity. I don’t mean for everything to be basic but you don’t have to be told everything about our venue. You should be able to walk in and just get it. And that’s what we like about our venue.
FRED: I love being able to walk into a venue and just say, give me whatever the thing is that you do well.
MATT: It couldn’t be more about time and place when you’re standing in here, sharing the space with people doing fundamentally what they want, not what we want them to do. And they’re drinking a pint of Guinness.
Around the Bars
Worshiping Whisky. Whisky Abbey returns in less than four weeks at Abbotsford Convent on Saturday and Sunday, 8th & 9th of November from 11am to 6pm. Hospitality professionals can now get access to trade tickets for the Sunday session by registering here.
Schnapps It Up. If you want to taste some of the very best fruit brandies currently being produced in Australia, grab a ticket to From Orchard to Bottle: A Journey into German Schnapps hosted by local eau de vie distillers Schnappes Idea at Hofbräuhaus on October 22nd. I’ve tried some of their stuff and it’s bloody impressive.
Drink of the Year entries close this week! Have you entered your drink into the Drink of the Year Awards yet? It’s got to be a drink that has been on the list at your bar, or regularly available, for some time during the past 12 months. You’ll need a good photo of the drink, one of yourself, the recipe and some more info which you can find at boothby.com.au/drinkoftheyear — entries close 11:59PM AEDT Friday 17 October.
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Boothby Staff
