THE SCENE: One of the criticisms regularly levelled at the cocktail bar community is that it is prone to originality-sapping fads. So, it was with trepidation I read that The Everleigh on Gertrude Street, in Melbourne’s Fitzroy, is a Prohibition-themed speakeasy. Oh lore! Another? But originality really is the most overrated virtue,especially in the cocktail world. I don’t care how innovative your new cocktail ingredients are, the resulting concoction doesn’t taste better than a perfect Manhattan does it? And, let me be blunt: everything at The Everleigh is perfect.I could spends sentences effusing over the beautiful surrounds and flawless staff,but it’s the cocktails we need to get down to.
BEHIND THE BAR: I start with an Old Fashioned, which is comfortably the best I’ve had in this hemisphere. But, it is my second drink that provides definitive evidence as to the special talent behind the bar. I ask the waiter for something bitter but fresh, what arrives is a rye-whiskey masterpiece: It has levels of complexity I’m tempted to compare to a Marcel Proust sentence, but I won’t.
THE GRUB: If you asked for food here I imagine you’d be asked to leave.
BILL PLEASE: Cocktails from $20, champagne from $15.
VERDICT: The best bar I’ve been to in Australia, so probably the best bar in Australia.
