Set in a massive heritage edifice, this bar devotes itself to cocktails, offering a hefty, ever-changing list plus bespoke tipples for fussy drinkers.
Botanic Bar occupies one of those grandiose, verandah-wrapped edifices that one normally associates with vast renovated pubs. However, Botanic is not interested in pokies and pints. Instead, it worships the temple of the divine cocktail.
Three full-time cocktail bartenders devote themselves entirely to maintaining, expanding and serving a massive list of 40-odd cocktails. There's a dizzying array of booze behind the bar (including more than 50 liqueurs). Here, the bar staff shake, build, stir and blend an endless stream of mixes, from muddles to martinis and sours.
Cocktail connoisseurs are encouraged to challenge the bartenders to create an off-the-cuff bespoke tipple. Alternatively, one can just order a boozy staple such as Botanic's Appletini (Absolut vodka, Midori, sour apple schnapps, apple juice and fresh pink lady apples).
DJs entertain Botanic's crowd of uni students and miscellaneous young things on most night, spinning funk, breaks and electro-house tunes. There's no dance floor for people to really let loose on, but the crowd seems more than happy to stand and wiggle, or sit on leather sofas and sway from there.
On quieter nights, the billiard room offers a refined twist on the standard pub pool hall, with two full-sized tables testing the limits of myopic pool hounds.
Shelley Tustin
