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Tucked just off Smith Street on Greeves Street, Hands Down has quite the family tree. Owners Dominic Xavier, Hayden Lambert and Manu Potoi bring Bar Liberty and Above Board experience to the table, while bar manager Alex Boon comes via Pearl Diver. In other words, there are some very capable hands behind this neighbourhood cocktail bar.
And yet, Hands Down doesn’t feel like a place where you need to know your fino from your fino en rama. The proposition is pleasingly simple: excellent drinks, a food menu that consists of a single gilda (plus a few packets of crisps) and very little standing between you and a good time.
The vibe
It’s a grey, wintry Wednesday when I arrive at Hands Down bang on 4pm, just as the doors open. I’m the only person here. There’s something fun about seeing a theatre devoid of its main cast.
From the street, Hands Down is sleek but unassuming, its green-tiled frontage giving little away. Inside, warm timber and deep teal finishes dominate. Comfy booths line the perimeter, while a standing bar occupies the centre. There’s room for a crowd, but plenty of corners to tuck into.
With essentially two tones at play, there’s personality without too much visual noise. There’s enough blank space for the atmosphere to shift depending on who fills it. At 4pm, that means me and a jazzy number pumping through a sound system that, despite knowing absolutely nothing about sound systems, I can tell is the real deal.
There’s a subtle European undercurrent to it all. You see it in the glassware, the timber, the menu and a certain ’70s elegance, but it never tips into theme. The wine list follows suit, made up almost entirely of bottles from Italy, Spain and France. By-the-glass options are limited to one each across red, white and orange, but Hands Down has more of a snuggle-in-with-a-bottle energy anyway.
Outside, a roomy parklet runs parallel to the frontage. It isn’t getting much action today, but come summer, I suspect it will be a different story.
The food
There’s exactly one made-to-order snack on the menu: a gilda. But honestly? It does some serious heavy lifting. White anchovy, olive, guindilla and a tiny kiss pepper are skewered together into the kind of salty, juicy, acidic mouthful I’m always craving alongside a Martini.
The kiss pepper is tiny and shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss. It bursts with sweetness and acidity, with just the faintest flicker of heat. Moving between the gilda and my Martini, I’m a very happy girl.
The drinks
Obviously, this is the main event. The cocktail menu changes regularly, but it’s split into easy-to-navigate subsections. Menus like this can start to feel a little same-same, but there’s some intriguing stuff happening here – think artichoke amaro, plum vinegar, Italian cola. Oh, this is going to be fun. Given the cold outside, though, my attention settles firmly on one section: Hot and Creamy. I know where I’m starting.
The Café Italiano mixes Italian brandy, nocino and Averna beneath a layer of orange cream. The scent of orange hits me before I’ve even taken a sip. Underneath, the brandy mixture is warm and rich; on top, the cream is cool, sweet and fragrant. Each sip moves between the two, hot and cold, sweet and spiced (and reminds me of a rather excellent cocktail I recently had at Three Horses). It’s elegant, comforting and very, very good.
And that’s the thing about the drinks at Hands Down. There’s plenty here for cocktail nerds to get excited about, but you certainly don’t need to be one. They’re interesting without demanding that you understand exactly why. All the hard work has already been done behind the bar; you just get to enjoy the result.
I’m fiercely loyal to a Dirty Gin Martini, but the Fifty Fifty could tempt me to stray. Archie Rose gin, fino sherry and vermouth make for something floral and, somehow, almost juicy, finished with a picante olive.
The Mandarin Sour has me wondering why its namesake is such an underdog in the citrus world. Lemon, lime and orange tend to get all the glory, but mandarin has a soft sweetness all of its own. Here, it’s mixed with Grey Goose vodka, fino sherry and lemon to make something fragrant, bright and bursting with citrus. It’s almost aggressively summery.
Even the Tall, Fruity and Spicy (rockmelon sherry, apricot brandy, lemon and jalapeño) is fresh rather than fiery. And if all this sounds a little adventurous, rest assured: they nail the classics, too.
Time Out tip:
Come right at opening with a book and settle in for a cocktail or two. Having Hands Down almost to yourself is pretty lush.
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