Where it All Began: Eau-de-Vie, Sydney, Australia

When we travel, we pick one night, sometimes two, to “go out”. I mean we eat out the whole time we are travelling (unless we are in an Air B&B with a kitchen but anyway…) but I mean “Go Out”.

Days or weeks before leaving Jess will put together a map (Virgo) of the area we are staying and the areas where bars on the Top 50 bars list reside. When we decided on Australia for our honeymoon, Sydney was our first stop. Jess made the appropriate map and we were off.

One of the bars on the list is Eau-De-Vie. We were there on a Monday or Tuesday so it wasn’t insanely busy. However the drinks at Eau-De-Vie are pretty involved. Lots of liquid nitrogen and cotton candy. At one point I noticed that the bartender (whose name escapes me) would build and ice the drinks and leave them up on the service pass, where the server would stir and pour them. This only happened during serious rushes, but I was impressed.

At one point the bartender mentioned that she had to take a break and the server gets behind the bar and starts making the same drinks even faster and more efficiently. Then it hit me “Oh, that’s how you get on the World’s Best Bars List!”

All of this was great and the drinks were great. The most important thing about this visit though was when the girls working started asking us questions and we started asking them questions. Where are you from? How long are you here? Where did you grow up?

“Oh, you’re a bartender!”

Joy (maybe Joyce, it WAS 14 months ago and the drinks were delicious) asked what we had planned for the next day. We mentioned something about the Botanical Gardens or the Opera House or maybe Bondi. As soon as we mentioned Bondi, she lit up.

“You have to do the walk from Bondi to Coogee!”

“kud gyeeee”

“Coogee! You take the bus to Bondi and get a bottle of water and then you follow a boardwalk that goes along the coast and passes cliffs and beaches and a huge graveyard.”

The next day, that’s what we did. It was maybe the best part of our trip to Sydney.

That is why we started this site. Bartender Atlas.

Josh Lindley

Co-Creator at Bartender Atlas

Josh Lindley has been bartending in Toronto since 2007. Before working for Hendrick's Gin as a Brand Ambassador he was bar manager at Campagnolo and a hired gun at Bar Isabel before working at Chantecler, Le Phenix and Eataly. He has contributed to many magazines, tv shows and newspapers with his recipes and opinions. He recently put his diploma in Radio Broadcasting from Humber College to good use through The Blackbird audio documentary. Currently pouring at Civl Liberties and teaching cocktail classes for Evelyn Chick's Love of Cocktails, he enjoys being an ambassador to Toronto and talking about horror movies, punk rock and basketball.