Tiny, hole-in-the-wall CBD bar Bar Americano have been hosting cocktail-fuelled Christmas parties every year since they opened in 2011 and they’ll be doing the same this year. Except this Christmas owner and head bartender Matt Bax (of Der Raum and Bar Exuberante fame) will be extending the Christmas special to 12 days, when Bar Americano will be transformed into Bar Yuletide.
The festive transformation will see Bar Yuletide serve cocktails highlighting traditional Christmas flavours. “The challenge is to put a menu together that is both traditional – to honour Bar Americano’s European roots, but also pay homage to the flavours of our Aussie summer,” Matt Bax says. The Bar Americano founder has also brought back a few cocktails of Christmas past from his Der Raum archives. The Feuerzangenbowle, based on the traditional German tipple, is a warm concoction with winter spices, VSOP Cognac, vintage dark rum, port and pomegranate molasses; meanwhile, the Naughty or Nice nitro frozen eggnog cocktail gives the creamy classic the tell-tale Bax touch. “[These cocktails] are almost 10 years old, yet they’re still more technically advanced than drinks at many bars around today. They showcase our old ideas of using temperature and different elements beyond just the normal shaking with ice.”
Bax will also be donating all profits from Bar Yuletide’s spiced Glühwein (mulled wine) sales to the UNICEF Christmas Appeal. Not that you needed a reason to order a second serve of the oak barrel-aged blend of robust red wines, winter spices, summer fruits and teas.
Unlike previous years, entry to Bar Yuletide will not be ticketed and will be walk-ins only, but keep in mind that capacity at this tiny space caps at 10 lucky drinkers. Bax assures us that everyone will get a chance to toast to the silly season. “Our queues always move fast though as Bar Americano is designed this way. With no seats, it’s a bar you pop in and out of rather than camp out for the night. It's also a way of sharing the night with the cities other great venues; a beer there, a wine someplace else and a cocktail with us.”