Now Open: Bouvardia, One of the CBD’s Prettiest New Bars, Is Doing a Gwen Stefani-Inspired Cocktail

In a city like Melbourne, opening a cocktail bar is tough. Every concept, every fit-out, every recipe seems to have been ticked off already. Standing out is a challenge – and that’s why Bouvardia feels like such a win. The new CBD spot has even more going for it than its effortless cool, with owner Abjar Kasho (The Woods of Windsor) giving venue manager Dom Garreffa (who worked as a waiter at Attica for two years) the space to make it what he wants. And what he wants goes beyond just another speak-easy serving the classics.

“We’re very much inspired by those amazing, modern London-style cocktail bars,” says Garreffa, singling out the now-defunct Dandelyan (which took out top spot in the 2018 World’s 50 Best Bars list).

Once you find the discreet set of stairs on Bourke Street (just look for the line of people waiting for a table at Thai hotpot and barbeque joint Nana) you’ll enter into a dark, sparsely furnished space – with a dusty pink banquette and spotlit emerald-green marble bar. It’s minimal but classy, leaving you enough space to get distracted by the menu.

There are 10 cocktails, each with its own page on the menu, which lists spirit producers and allergen info as well as nitty-gritty details such as ABV and pH. For Garreffa, there’s an extra precision that comes with the scientific approach guiding his list. But it comes from a desire to bring people in, rather than push them away. “I’m always very nerdy in the way I approach cocktails, but I wanted to present it in a way that wasn’t scary for people. I wanted to showcase weird flavours and wonderful combinations without it being scary.”

The first is B.A.N.A.N.A.S, a Gwen Stefani-referencing cocktail built around isoamyl acetate – an ester, or chemical compound, which smells and tastes like banana. Starward whisky and Plantation rum also lend banana notes, as does an oil made from Danish-rye miso and black banana. It’s rounded out with a (measured) splash of coconut water.

In 2020, Garreffa found himself working through Noma chef René Redzepi’s fermentation guide. “As winter approaches, he has to blacken or preserve all his produce or else he won’t have produce for six months,” says Garreffa. That way of thinking has informed a number of Bouvardia cocktails: the B.A.B (aka black-apple brandy) utilises fermented black apples, while the Major Tom uses bright yellow lacto-fermented passionfruit in combination with Marionette blue curaçao for a superbly green drink.

All Parts of the Celery is Garreffa riffing on an off-menu dish from his old Attica days. “One of the longest-running dishes there is All Parts of the Pumpkin … You have the flesh, you have the pumpkin seeds and the skin, and you make a cream out of the pumpkin juice. So, it was taking that nose-to-tail dining trend and purposing it into a cocktail – and basing it around one piece of produce.” For his celery creation, the stems are infused in sake, the stalks are juiced up and the leaves are combined with sugar for the rim.

There’s also an intriguing zero-alcohol option – Honey, I Burnt the Yogurt – which ties into the snowballing trend towards better booze-free drinks. It’s a play on a recipe for caramelised sour cream that caught Garreffa’s eye. Using Greek yogurt cooked over four days at 85 degrees, the result is a tangy caramel, something like dulce de leche.

You also won’t find a lemon or a lime at Bouvardia. Instead, the team subs in alternative acids that don’t rely as heavily on seasonality. Fennel acid in the Waxing Lyrical, for example, is made by juicing fennel and acidifying it with citric, malic and ascorbic acids.

Beyond cocktails, there’s a smart but snappy list of wine from producers such as Bannockburn, out of the Geelong region, and Gippsland Wine Co, and a couple of beers on tap.

And keep an eye out, because the stairs at the back of the bar will soon lead to a rooftop addition overlooking Bourke Street, which is slated to open later this year.

Bouvardia
Level 2 169 Bourke Street, Melbourne

Hours:
Tue & Wed 5pm¬–12am
Thu to Sat 5pm–1am

bouvardia.com.au