Meet Trinity Bird, the bartender behind Bouvardia’s next list

Before we get into the important business of bars this week, I wanted to let you know that this will be my last weekly column of Around the Bars for Boothby. It has been an honour to write about Melbourne and the community here that constantly innovates and inspires – there’s a reason I have made this city my home and a lot of that is the bars, the drinks and, most importantly, the people behind them. Thank you to everyone I’ve had the pleasure of talking to for this column, to everyone who reads it and to Boothby for allowing me to share my love with both. This won’t be the last you hear from me, it will just be a bit less regular going forward! — Cara.

The strip of Bourke St between Spring St and Russell St is forming a new identity as Melbourne’s Thai town – a wander down there at peak times sees patient queues trailing out of restaurants offering legit boat noodles and spicy Isan flavours. Look closely near the corner of Bourke and Russell though, and you’ll see a small sign announcing ‘cocktails’. 

Bouvardia may not be hidden as such, but you do have to keep an eye out and venture up a couple of flights of stairs (past another Thai spot) before you reach the long marble bar and Wes Anderson-esque velvet couches, appropriately reminiscent of the speakeasy vibe of a lot of the best bars in Bangkok. It has been taking a scientific approach to cocktail making since 2021 and has recently had a breath of fresh air come through in the form of bar manager Trinity Bird, who joined the team six months ago.

Trin has been an active part of the Melbourne hospo scene for a while now, despite her self-professed youth, with tenures at Nick & Nora’s and Beneath Driver Lane, a nomination for Rookie of the Year and strong showings in cocktail competitions (most recently Speed Rack). She did have a head start though, beginning her hospo career at the tender age of 14. “I was a gymnastics coach at the time and I used to finish a gymnastics shift and go straight to carrying plates and parmas at the local restaurant,” she says, before finding her calling in cocktails.

“RSA is a bit different in Tassie in that you can serve alcohol at 16 if you’ve got an RSA and someone is in the bar with you, supervising,” Trin explains. “So basically, at 16, I was asked to put together a cocktail special for a New Year’s Eve menu in my local pub. It was stuff like Vodka Sunrises and Grasshoppers, I had this old cocktail book from the 90s. I couldn’t drink any of them but that was when I kind of decided that behind the bar was for me.”

She got to know Jack Tennant, a co-owner of Bouvardia, while working in other Melbourne venues and was attracted by the scientific approach to cocktails. “The menu design was something I fell in love with. It’s very cocktail-focused with the ABV, Brix and pH levels, lots of food science and local ingredients – the people here previously really cared about what they were putting on the menu, there were no bad drinks,” Trin says.

“I did a first year in Chemistry at Monash when I moved here so I was immediately like, great, I get to do both.”

The menu still lives up to that – it is that rare thing in Melbourne, a purely cocktail-focused venue (no wine bar snacks here), where drinks like the Major Tom showcase techniques such as lacto-fermentation in an approachable way; I was there on a Monday night where multiples dates were cosied up and pretty much every table ordered one.

Trin is making her mark though, with her first drinks debuting on the menu this week – her pick is a Thai red curry-inspired Martini. “It’s spicy, there’s a bunch of herbs in there as well,” she says. “I’ve used a lot of techniques that I hadn’t used or thought of before that have come together in a nice wintery Martini.” 

I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview and can confirm it is delicious, starting off as a clean, cool and savoury Martini that develops across your palate with all the warming spice and aromatics opening up as you drink. 

This is just the beginning as Trin will be taking full ownership of the drinks program going forward. “It really hit me when I got settled in here and was cleaning a table out back one day and Jack comes up to me and goes, ‘how does it feel?’. And I was like, ‘what are you talking about?’. He said, ‘how does it feel to be cleaning your own bar?’ And that was the moment that it hit me that this is my bar now, my passion, my staff, my ingredients.

“My biggest thing has always been the staff; a team makes or breaks a venue and coming into an already established team that was so amazing, that was a really big thing for me. And then just being able to teach them what I know so we can all keep growing together – that’s the main thing, a solid team, and then the menu comes easy if you’ve got enough creative spirit in a team.”

Bouvardia has always been great, and while the saying goes ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, that doesn’t mean you can’t make it even better.

Around the Bars

• Ho Chi Minh’s acclaimed DOT bar are coming to Melbourne to showcase Saigon flavours and world class techniques – they are at Mongkok Tea House in Camberwell on Thursday July 17th and Manchuria Bar in the CBD on Friday July 18th shaking up five exclusive cocktails. For more details check out their Instagram @dotbar.saigon.
• Loch & Key is celebrating Argentina Independence Day with Fernet Branca tomorrow, Wednesday July 9th. There will be Fernet & Coke, of course, for the low price of $8, plus empanadas and merch giveaways.
• The Australian Distilled Spirits Awards has had a rebrand this year, allowing international entrants for the first time in their history and so changing the name to the Australian International Spirits Awards. I was lucky enough to chair the liqueurs panel this year – that’s a lot of limoncello for anyone to drink – but there was some great stuff on show. They’re hosting a trade tasting this Friday, July 11th, of all the exhibitors. It’s free, but register here.