Brisbane’s Best Bar Openings of 2022

It’s the variety of Brisbane new bars that stuck with us most when reviewing the best openings of 2022. Broadsheet covered everything from a sprawling 500-person rooftop bar to a Euro-inspired wine room, a new Valley outpost for one of the world’s buzziest craft brewers, and a moody subterranean aperitivo and digestivo den.

The other trend that sticks out (although it’s perhaps in tandem with our best new restaurants and best new cafes
lists) is the continued revival of the CBD as a place for late-night drinks. There’s a positivity surrounding the city that’s being powered by the 2023 opening of the Queen’s Wharf development and the Olympics in 2032.

Here, in alphabetical order, are the bars that took our fancy these past 12 months.

Before & After , CBD
Before & After opened in August in the cosy CBD basement hideaway previously occupied by Bean Cafe. Inside, the bones of the old Bean are still in place, including its timber bar top, but owner George Curtis has lent the 35-seat premises an entirely new feel by dimming the lights, applying a darker coat of paint and ripping out some plaster to reveal an original brick wall. A back area has been blocked off with a couple of couches and populated with lamps and an old gramophone.

Before & After’s particular poison is amaro, the bar opening with close to 40 bottles of the traditionally Italian digestif on its back bar. Thirteen of them are vintage, including bottles of Zucca Rabarbaro and Bianco Lorenz that date back to the 1940s, and a 1960s Fernet-Branca. There’s also a bunch of Australian drops, including a hard-to-find Osare amaro from Tasmania, and a range of Beechworth Bitters amari. Curtis says to expect the list to grow as he seeks out more bottles from around the world.

Cocktails include a signature beeswax and lavender Negroni; a concoction of Mr Black coffee amaro, Poor Toms Imbroglio amaro, curry leaf and pineapple skin that he’s named Dutch Curry; and the Crop Circle, which uses Full Circle amaro from South Australia, dill, vanilla and citrus. There’s a relatively sophisticated menu of bar snacks (some of which is prepared with the help of Alba Bar & Deli, a couple of blocks across on Burnett Lane) that includes a shrimp roll with Fernet-Branca mayo; a pork and pistachio terrine; Olasagasti anchovies on toast with salsa verde; and a grilled cheese sanga with amaro mustard.

Brewdog Fortitude Valley , Fortitude Valley
Brewdog had been planning to establish a presence in the Valley for more than two years, but Covid and building delays kept getting in the way. Finally, in November, it opened a three-storey taproom in the heritage-listed Tranberg House, with 60 beer taps in total and room for 400 people. The fit-out is industrial, with lots of exposed timber, hardwood floors and concrete features, which are offset by plush lounges and booth seating. On the ground level sits the main bar with a handful of pinball machines, while downstairs is the kitchen and a bar made from a converted shipping container. On the top floor is a bright, airy bar space with two shuffleboard tables (the interactive games are a signature of Brewdog’s 100 venues worldwide).

The tap list includes a host of Brewdog beers that are all brewed at its Dogtap Australian mothership down in Murarrie, such as the Punk XPA, the Hazy Jane New England IPA and the Elvis Juice IPA, alongside guest beers from local breweries like Parched, Revel and Range. There’s also a selection of cocktails, wines, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks. The food menu is slightly shorter than Dogtap, but the focus remains on burgers, wings and pizzas.

Frog’s Hollow Saloon , CBD
At first glance, Frog’s Hollow Saloon screams fancy boozer: the fit-out inside the old John Reid & Nephews facade on Charlotte Street (it originally fronted an ironworks, and most recently an antiques store) is timber-and-brick heritage, curated menus decorate the tables, and there’s a depth of talent running the place that would be the envy of many cocktail bars around the country. But that’s where the pomp ends. This is a venue that’s top-to-bottom approachable. You order at the bar, not in your seat; the music leans towards jukebox rock and country; and the enormous double-sash windows are left open, meaning it soaks up the hum of Charlotte Street when it’s quiet, and vice versa when it’s busy.

A crew of veterans from celebrated Australian venues such as The Gresham, Biànca, Mjølner, Black Pearl and Captain Melville are looking after a booze selection that features independent whiskies from around the world, including Australian distillers such as Starward, 5Nines, Spring Bay and Launceston Distillery. Australian producers also feature prominently on a 50-bottle-strong list of gins. All up, the back bar carries more than 350 bottles. A signature cocktail menu presents clever twists on the classics, there’s a short list of mainly Australian small-producer wines, and six taps pour Guinness and XXXX Gold alongside a rotating clutch of craft beers.

Melrose Cocktail Bar Bulimba
Giorgina Venzin relaunched Melrose in March, her classy Bulimba Southeast Asian restaurant becoming a two-in-one, with the right-hand side of the venue rebranded as Melrose Cocktail Bar (the restaurant is now just a 40-seater on the left, in front of the kitchen, with a menu fine-tuned for the more intimate set-up). The room looks much as it has since opening – high tables in a beach club-inspired room of timber and terracotta tiling, with plenty of greenery and a retractable ceiling – but now swerves harder into a tight cocktail list that repackages a couple of classics next to a handful of signature drinks. You might drink a Yuzu Negroni (Four Pillars gin, Campari, yuzu merlot vermouth), a Tom-Yum Collins (tom yum-infused rum, lime juice, soda), craft beers on tap, and a wine list that favours funky Australian small-producer drops. For food, chef Arte Assavakavinvong is cooking small plates of chargrilled corn, sticky pork skewers, Moreton Bay bug milk buns with tom yum mayo, popcorn chicken and grilled lamb ribs.

Purple Palm and South City Wine , Woolloongabba
From Sasso Italiano and Casa Chow owners Vincent Lombino and Jared Thibault came this one-two November punch at South City Square in Woolloongabba.

Purple Palm is a gin bar and pocket distillery flanked by six-metre palm trees. Envisioned as an everyday drinker, its 60-seat space is fitted out in crisp concrete and stone and arranged in front of an island bar with a wall of gin and a still that will be launched early January and operated by award-winning Mighty Craft-owned South Australian gin distillery 78 Degrees. Beyond producing its own spirit, Purple Palm’s drinks list is anchored in Mighty Craft’s wider gin portfolio, which also includes Seven Seasons and Kangaroo Island Spirits. Beers include Brisbane brewers Slipstream, Ballistic Beer Co and Aether. Wines are a tight list of local producers. There are also Salty Dogs (gin mixed with grapefruit juice and served with a salted rim) and Southsides on tap. For food, guests can order food from South City Wine and Casa Chow , depending on the time of day, and there’s a jaffle menu in the works.

Across the way, South City Wine is much more of an Old World-inspired venue, its 60 seats set inside a fit-out of tiled floors, green bifold doors and handsome timber tables and cabinetry. For drinks, there’s a 200-bottle wine list (with 25 by the glass and three rotating Coravin drops) drawn from natural-leaning producers in Australia, France, Italy, Spain, the USA and New Zealand, and a French-inspired cocktail list. The food menu offers European bistro classics such as fresh oysters, escargot, venison tartare, steak frites, chicken liver parfait and charcuterie.

Soko , Fortitude Valley
Opening in November atop the Jubilee Place building, 14 storeys above the Jubilee Hotel, Soko boasts jaw-dropping views. North-west of the CBD, it’s a peculiar outlook, slightly uphill and set back from the skyscrapers by six or seven blocks – there’s nothing else like it in town. Almost 1500 square metres in size and shaped around a couple of enormous garden beds, Soko has capacity for 500 punters to populate a loosely Amazonian-themed venue with a moodily lit dining room of high ceilings, deep green tiles and green velvet furniture, and a more brightly detailed outside balcony that’s split between lounge and bar seating.

Drinks are led by cocktails – in particular, a long list of Pisco Sours from which you choose a variant of Barsol pisco and match it to a blend (mango and togarashi, say, or melon and wasabi). Elsewhere, there are signature cocktails, a healthy selection of sake and an efficient wine list (with a cellar list to be added in 2023). For food, owners Ross Ledingham and David Hernandez (formerly Evita’s head chef) have created a menu that brings together Peruvian and Japanese flavours (although they’re careful not to call it nikkei cuisine) and is split across small plates, ceviche, shared mains and sushi rolls.

Stranded , Fortitude Valley
Stranded sits upstairs across Winn Lane from The Zoo and mirrors its sister venue with its brick walls, timber floors and vaulted ceiling. Instead of a stage, though, there’s a long bar lined with diner-style leather stools. The rest of the heritage-listed space is populated by high bars, and booths and upcycled furniture from old restaurants. It adds up not so much a rock’n’roll bar but somewhere you might go before or after a music show, or to start or end a night in the Valley. The back bar is stocked with at least 50 bottles of hard-to-find tequila and mezcal, and DJs spin old rock records most nights of the week. There’s also a classy menu of pizza and Italian-inspired small plates.

Stratton Bar & Kitchen , Newstead
A new venue from Mrs Brown’s Tarryn and Ben Brown, Newstead’s Stratton Bar & Kitchen occupies a pair of WWII-era hangars on Stratton Street in Newstead. Inside, it’s a striking, capacious space with exposed arches and a large skylight letting in plenty of natural light. The venue has been designed with three different spaces in mind. Enter via the bar – a sunlit glasshouse with a vine-laced steel tree centrepiece – or through the dining area, a large room anchored by a 30-seat table made from recycled timber. A substantial bar then stretches about half the length of the venue to cater to those waiting for a table and handles the 35-strong cocktail list. An extensive share-focused food menu puts pizzas alongside char siu and curries. Nods to Mrs Brown’s popular prawn roll and Korean fried cauliflower come as a chicken karaage milk bun and sweet-and-sour broccoli.

Valley Hops Brewing , Fortitude Valley
Valley Hops opened in late November 2021 but missed our bars wrap of that year. Located on a sixth-floor rooftop above Cloudland , right in the heart of the Valley, it’s an intricately designed 800-square-metre space of stone, stained glass, timber and brick, the defining feature a metal arbour with creeping vines. There’s also a terrific outlook towards the CBD and the Story Bridge. Ex- Green Beacon brewer Josh Warren oversees a 15-hectolitre brewery and 200-litre pilot kit that’s feeding 36 beer taps. The core range includes a crisp mid-strength lager, a tropical ale, a pale ale, a sour, a West Coast-style IPA and a hazy IPA. It’s backed by seasonal and special release beers, and collaborations with other local brewers. For food, there’s woodfired pizza, lamb shoulder flatbreads, whole grilled king prawns, spicy octopus skewers, and salt-and-vinegar chicken wings.

Honourable Mentions

Parched : An airy three-storey brewpub on Montague Road in West End.
Lina Rooftop : A rooftop bar with standing room for 480 punters, a 30-metre infinity pool, and one-of-a-kind views of the CBD and the river.

Additional reporting by Elliot Baker and Cailin Sheppard.