Story by Wee James MacRae, Australian Brand Ambassador – Hendrick’s Gin @weejammacrae
International bar takeovers are always a date for the diary and a must for any bartender worth their salt. They are a chance to make fantastic global connections, and try a phenomenal calibre of serves, especially if you don’t have the opportunity of visiting that bar yourself… that being said, there are takeovers, and there are takeovers.
On Monday 6th of March, the bartenders of Sydney got to experience the latter of these two experiences at RE, Matt Whiley’s award-winning zero-waste cocktail bar.
Sexy Fish, two restaurant bars under the same name (London, and Miami, Florida), part of Caprice Holding’s prestigious array of historically London-based restaurants, and winner of the Spirited Award’s 2022 Best International Restaurant Bar for their London Sexy Fish restaurant and bar, have arrived in Sydney to takeover RE to hold one of six global menu launches.
“Not only were the team from Sexy Fish launching their menu here in Australia, but they were also simultaneously launching their menu across five other bars and in five different countries and continents. 20 cocktails, one menu, one day, six bars, six continents.”
The concept of launching a menu overseas isn’t new: Sexy Fish did something similar back in 2018 with bartenders sent to Singapore and New York for example. However, to my knowledge, there has never been an international menu launch quite so ambitious – not only were the team from Sexy Fish launching their menu here in Australia, but they were also simultaneously launching their menu across five other bars and in five different countries and continents. 20 cocktails, one menu, one day, six bars, six continents.
This involved shipping and using all the same glassware, all the same spirits, and all the same garnishes as those drinks being launched in the two official sites – a huge logistical challenge, and to quote RE’s owner Matt Whiley “Absolutely nuts on a whole other level”.
The RE team were joined by three members of the London Sexy Fish team: Alice Wakley, a 10-year veteran of Caprice Restaurants, having worked as part of the Sexy Fish London bar team for two years, and now managing all openings for new bars for the group. Joining her on this whirlwind trip was Andrea Vesnaver – bar supervisor, and Ryan Betts – bartender.
Outside of getting a first look and taste of the incredible new Hendrick’s Gin cocktail on their menu: ‘Kumquat & Shiso, Velvety’ – a phenomenal marriage of Shiso infused Hendrick’s Gin, Kumquat, Strega, and Peychaud’s Bitters, I was able grab a quick ten minutes with the team to ask them some questions on the inspiration and challenges for this takeover.
Naturally while doing this, I managed to get in the way when they were batching and prepping, taking photos of things I shouldn’t have, and just generally causing chaos in an otherwise very organised and controlled environment.
Q&A with Alice Wakley by Wee James MacRae
Wee James: How was Sexy Fish’s international team split up and allocated for these destinations and takeovers?
Alice: It was a big conversation, involving the bar managers from Miami and London, our director of bars Xavier Landais, as well as our group head bartender James Hawkins.
Naturally with a concept like this there is a huge amount of pressure – Sydney being the first location to have visibility of this menu due to the time differences. Also, the head bartenders from each bar had to be in venue, we chose members of the team we knew could perform under this pressure
Why twenty cocktails, and outside of the launches in-venue, four international takeovers? – That is a huge commitment and challenge surely?
Our last menu was a similar layout and that was also made up of twenty cocktails. Looking too at our last international menu launch in 2018 before Sexy Fish Miami existed when we launched that in two locations other than London (New York & Singapore). Now that we have two Sexy Fish venues, and to top 2018, we doubled the number of takeover locations.
Sexy Fish London has been open since 2015 and we know can get the best out of our team, the best out of everyone. If we’re going to do this, if we’re going to travel around the world and deliver 20 cocktails, we could have just brought out and showcased five out of the twenty cocktails and still delivered a pretty good version of the menu, but why on earth would we do that?
If you’re going to do it, do it properly. We’ve had to bring the menus with us, we’ve had to ship the glassware. We’ve had to use Matt Whiley and Matt Dale to source the same ingredients we have in London and Miami – a huge undertaking with a solid week of prep just for one day – we knew that they could match our standards of excellence and were perhaps mad enough to enter into it.
“If you’re going to do it, do it properly. We’ve had to bring the menus with us, we’ve had to ship the glassware. We’ve had to use Matt Whiley and Matt Dale to source the same ingredients we have in London and Miami – a huge undertaking with a solid week of prep just for one day – we knew that they could match our standards of excellence and were perhaps mad enough to enter into it.” – Alice Wakley, Caprice Holdings
Tell me about the Hendrick’s cocktail and how the menu has been developed.
The whole menu has been created by the bar teams over the last six months: each team and individual tasked with creating a drink which is then honed together by Group Head Bartender James Hawkins, with every drink split into three concepts – Aroma, Taste, and Texture.
Various flavour profiles are selected and brands we wanted to work with are highlighted. We knew that Shiso would work with Hendrick’s Gin and then we worked from there.
I think it’s the most attractive serve on the whole menu… it’s beautiful! What a stunning cocktail. Once the drink is developed, we ask ourselves how can we streamline this, how can we get more flavour out of this, can we do something different to improve this – It’s a long process.
All prep ingredients go through our lab. We have a centralised lab for the Caprice venues. This is where all the liquid prep for all the London-based restaurants and bars takes place. Miami of course has its own site. The lab will also look through the prep to develop ways of making prep more efficient.
Have there been any ingredients you’ve come across in Australia that you might look to incorporate for future menus?
We’ve learnt so much from the team here at RE. Just being around Australia (Alice’s first trip to these shores I should add here) I smell so much Lemon Myrtle – if I could take just one ingredient inspiration from this trip it would be that. Saying that seeing the menu here at RE and how they approach using ingredients, especially using ‘waste’ ingredients has inspired ideas of how we could do more of the same back in venue.
On this, it should be highlighted and applauded that the Sexy Fish team have off-set their carbon footprint for all trips – a very important factor for these takeovers for them.
Lastly, how important would you say it is that brands get involved with takeovers?
As a brand, you’re constantly thinking, how can I help bars, how can I invest, how can I activate and give guests the best experiences with our products? What helps my brand and in short, its takeovers?
It’s beneficial for all concerned, from a bar point of view, from a guest point of view, from a marketing point of view, from a learning and exposure point of view…I can’t see any negatives to it. One hundred per cent brands should be supporting and getting behind this – if there is one thing to invest in anything, invest in this!
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Outside of the official sites in London and Miami claiming the continents of Europe and North America, there were also takeovers on Monday at Cause Effect in Cape Town, South Africa: Zest in Seoul, South Korea, and El Baron in Cartagena, Columbia.
Needless to last night was incredible. I’ve never seen such a range of delicious drinks produced with so much attention to detail and fun! I know I’m biased here but I do have to agree with Alice on the Hendrick’s serve!
All be it that there were many challenges involved to make this happen, I have to give a standing ovation to the teams involved both here in Sydney, and around the world. Sexy Fish, when you say you’re going to do something, you do it properly!