When American bartender Sasha Petraske passed away in 2015, the New York Times obituary noted that “Petraske’s role in the modern cocktail revival is difficult to overstate. The opening of Milk & Honey in 1999, in a narrow space on a dark, little populated block of the Lower East Side, has been called instrumental in the revival of cocktail culture across United States and beyond.”

Many of the characteristics found at today’s best bars – from chilled glassware to discreet speakeasy entrances – originated at Milk & Honey, which went on to seed direct and indirect descendants all around the world. One of those was Fitzroy bar The Everleigh, which Petraske opened in 2011 with former Milk & Honey employees Lauren Schell and Michael Madrusan. (Schell left the business soon after and went home to America.)

Madrusan and his wife, Zara Madrusan, announced The Everleigh’s closure on Instagram yesterday, alongside that of CBD sibling Bar Margaux. The closures are a result of debts accumulated during Covid, followed by tough trading conditions. Both businesses were eligible for restructuring under the federal government’s insolvency reforms, but were turned down.

The couple’s other business, rowdy CBD bar Heartbreaker, was placed into voluntary administration in September, before being restructured and emerging intact. Navy Strength (“ Australia’s best cocktail ice ”) and The Everleigh Bottling Co also remain in business.

“We’re pretty proud,” Michael tells Broadsheet. “I’m happy knowing we’ve done what we’ve done. We’ve achieved some great things and trained some amazing people.

“I’ve been back on shift at the Ev for three months now, working Wednesdays and some Saturdays. I’ve never known a bar that is so adored. Adored is the best word. The Everleigh was everyone’s darling because it gave a shit. And you feel that. You feel when somebody cares. You know it.”

Broadsheet celebrated The Everleigh’s “new style of bartending” shortly after it opened:

“Classic cocktails from the golden era” is a phrase that has been misused in many forms. But it belongs more appropriately here than any other bar in the city. Daisies, fixes, fizzes, old fashioneds, sours and sazeracs form the basis of the pinnacle of the elusive “golden era” and are made to standards at The Everleigh that are beyond anything you’ve likely ever experienced. If you have doubts, take these measures into consideration: all juice is squeezed fresh, not that day, not that hour, but as your drink is made; there’s no ice machine because they freeze and hand-cut all the ice that is used for shaking and serving drinks; speed pourers are omitted for fear of tainting the drinks. They’re little things that maybe only the best bartenders will appreciate, and as such, are baseline standards at The Everleigh.

In 2022 we still felt the same, publishing an oral history of the bar and noting: “11 years on, it’s still the perfect cocktail bar”.

All this is to say: the Ev was a big deal – almost as influential in Melbourne and Australia as Milk & Honey was in New York and America. Its annual birthday blowouts were legendary. So too its pop-ups with renowned bars Attaboy and 28 Hongkong Street. It ran the bar at the NGV Gala one year. It raised $50,000 for bushfire relief in 2020, just before Covid struck.

Former employees went on to found Bar Bellamy, One or Two, and the Hot-Listed Reed House in Melbourne, plus Caretaker in Auckland. Others founded now-famous drink menus at places like Gimlet, Apollo Inn and Hobart’s Dier Makr.

Despite all this, the Ev wasn’t an immediate hit. “I learnt something really quickly,” Michael says. “When we first opened, The Everleigh just didn’t take to Melbourne. It was either the service standard or something else. I couldn’t really understand. We changed our service style to be far more warm and welcoming and loving and attentive.

“The biggest lesson that I took, and which I’ve gone on to talk about, is it was all the guests … Because it wasn’t me, it wasn’t us, that kept The Everleigh going. It was those people. We have regulars who were still coming in up until last week, who started coming when we first opened. We’ve made some incredibly deep and meaningful relationships – beautiful relationships – with regulars who’ve supported us the whole way. Without the customers, none of it would have been there. People tend to forget that. But on the way down, I’m proud that we never took them for granted.”