Waxflower’s modern take on the Old Fashioned

In partnership with Monkey Shoulder

The Old Fashioned is the original cocktail. It’s about as analogue a drink can be in today’s clarified, carbonated, and technique-driven world. But classics never really go out of fashion, do they?

The same could be said for vinyl records, which is what has inspired Monkey Shoulder’s latest collaboration and celebration of the Old Fashioned.

“The Old Fashioned is a drink you sit on and savour, much like playing a record,” says Monkey Shoulder brand ambassador Rachael Bartlett. ‘It’s also a great cocktail to riff on, and using Monkey Shoulder as the base opens up a multitude of flavour combinations and possibilities.”

In this series, Bartlett asked three top bartenders from three great Melbourne bars, to make a Monkey Shoulder Old Fashioned inspired by a record.

First up below is Margot Michat, from Brunswick bar Waxflower.

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BOOTHBY: Can you tell us about the drink that you’ve made?

MARGOT MICHAT: This drink with Monkey Shoulder, the name is Rachel Love. Inside the cocktail, we have a homemade pandan salted syrup. We have a sake-infused marigold, and Monkey Shoulder. The method is to stir the cocktail, and we’re making an ice diamond. And the garnish is, vegan jelly with seasonal flowers.

BOOTHBY: Tell us about the ice diamond?

MARGOT MICHAT: We do a diamond for ice because we want the cocktail to be pretty — it’s elegant, it’s pretty, it’s what we like.

BOOTHBY: How long have you been here at Waxflower? What’s the idea behind the bar?

MARGOT MICHAT: I’ve been working at Waxflower for two years now. And what’s the idea? It’s just a neighbourhood, wine bar with cocktail, just good music, good people, good team. We have a lot of regular customers. We use good products. We try to be respectful of the planet. We use organic seasonality.

BOOTHBY: And how do you make the marigold sake? Is that an infusion?

MARGOT MICHAT: We do a cold infusion in the freezer and then we blend and we filter off in a superbag. It’s very easy. Marigold is very fragile and if you cook it, it becomes bitter. And if you freeze it, it’s aromatic, floral. We don’t want cooked.

BOOTHBY: And when you say blend it, you mean?

MARGOT MICHAT: When we blend it, maybe two minutes, because if you blend too much, it cooks. And after we filter.

BOOTHBY: Marigold’s having a moment I reckon. I’ve seen that in a few places.

MARGOT MICHAT: Yeah. For me it’s my first time in my life, because it doesn’t exist in France.

BOOTHBY: How did you get into bartending?

MARGOT MICHAT: I’ve been bartending 10 years now. I began in a nurse school in France, but it was too difficult. I lived in Paris and I had no money. And one guy I know, he was working in a nightclub, and I started working in a nightclub for four months. And I said I love money but it’s pretty shit; I began working at CopperBay in Paris for two years, and Frequence for five years. I learned everything I know at this bar.

BOOTHBY: And what is it you love about hospitality now?

MARGOT MICHAT: What I love is talking with people. It’s more easy for me talking in French. What I love is talking with people, discovering new flavours, and enjoying my life. I think it’s very good working in hospitality in Australia because it’s not big hours like in France. And I have time to go to yoga, to do my stuff, collect records, play music.

BOOTHBY: Last question for you. What makes you happiest when you’re in a bar?

MARGOT MICHAT: I think what I love is the little details of hospitality. For example, we fill my glass of water, change my Martini glass when it’s no longer frozen. Or just people smiling, just being nice. Maybe it’s not the best cocktail I tried, but the service was amazing.

Margot Michat

Waxflower, Brunswick East
The record: Love Come Down by Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King

“This [record] has a strong sense of sensuality,” says Margot Michat, bar manager at Waxflower in Brunswick East. “She’s a woman, she’s so good — she was a star in the 80s. It makes you want to move. My cocktail, with Monkey Shoulder, salted pandan syrup, and marigold-infused sake was about creating a drink which feels the same as the music — warm, nostalgic, elegant and still exotic.”