FROM COFFEE TO COCKTAILS: THE NEW HYBRID CAFÉ/BAR.
Waiter, there’s a hole in my day! Say hello to the new, dual-concept café bar, bridging that godawful gap between the end of coffee and the start of cocktails.
There used to be a hole in our day. It was deep, dark and depressing. A time when it was too late to have coffee, and too early to have a drink. In Australia that’s around 3.30pm to 5.30pm. Two whole hours.
In Europe, that doesn’t happen. The traditional Viennese coffee house will happily pour you a glass of schnapps with your breakfast pastry. In Italy, you can stand al banco at the bar for your macchiato on the way to work, and drop in to the same counter on the way home for a glass of Prosecco. In London, where it sometimes seems the sun goes down straight after lunch, it feels perfectly acceptable to head to a warm, cosy pub in the middle of the afternoon. But here?
Martin Hudak of Sydney’s new Sammy Junior has been working in genre-fluid coffee-slash-cocktail bars in Europe since his first job in Slovakia in Central Europe. “I grew up with the mentality that its perfectly normal for a coffee shop to turn into a cocktail bar later in the day” he says.
From Slovakia, he moved to London, to work as senior bar tender at the magnificent American Bar at the Hotel Savoy, while at the same time entering competitions around the world on his speciality, the coffee cocktail. “I had been competing at this level for seven years and twice been second in the world,” he says, adding “I’m known as the guy who never gives up.”
In 2017, he finally did it, winning the World Coffee in Good Spirits Champion award;the same year The American Bar was deemed number one bar in the World’s 50 Best Bars awards. Challenge over, fresh pastures were required, and it was off to Sydney, to join Stefano Catino, Vince Lombardo and Andrea Gualdi, former bartender at the equally acclaimed Artesian at The Langham in London in opening Maybe Sammy in The Rocks.
At that stage, three years ago, he already knew that Australians had very high standards with coffee. “But it was a bit shocking that it was hard to get coffee after a certain time of the day, especially in the CBD. There was definitely a hole in the market.”
At Sammy Junior, he’s filling that hole by combining the worlds of coffee and cocktails. “We want to bridge the gap and make both worlds work together and appreciate each other” he says. So you can walk in to this rather gorgeous space – all pistachio green, gold detail and pretty pink contrast, a sort of refreshed, non-nostalgic art deco space that feels like a theatre lobby without the theatre - for a coffee, a sit-down breakfast, lunch, or mid-afternoon salumi platter.
The food, produced from a tiny kitchen, is fine, but here’s the thing: you can add a small, chic espresso martini, garibaldi or coffee negroni (100 ml, $13) at any time of the day. Civilisation has cometh.
Hybrid is clearly the buzzword for 2021.
We already have hybrid cars, hybrid events (part IRL, part Zoom), and hybrid work/life places. Now the hospitality sector, already squeezed staff shortages and rising costs, is eager for more creative, collaborative solutions.
Martin name-checks Linden Pride, Nathalie Hudson and Naren Young’s Dante in Greenwich Village, NYC, as industry leader; as well as Bar Termini in London; Rosella’s on the Gold Coast (using only Australian ingredients); Alba Bar & Deli in Brisbane; “and any bar-café in all of Italy”.
To which I will add the delightful Mrs Palmer Sandwich in Darlinghurst, with its secret, late night margarita bar La Farmacia through the door to the rear; and the chic little Parlour Cucina on the ground floor of QT Sydney in Market Street.
In Melbourne, Café Greta mixes up coffee and aperitivi from breakfast to lunch weekdays, and Abacus Bar & Kitchen goes from morning to night, with time for a mid-afternoon spritz. Archies All Day in Fitzroy was a genre-fluid pioneer, mixing it up since 2015.
There are more out there, so let me know by adding a comment below, and we can all go give them some business. Especially, if, like Sammy Junior, they’re good on the detail ( read on, for the espresso martini that changed my mind about espresso martinis).
The espresso martini as a sign of civilisation.
The ultimate hybrid of coffee and cocktail happens, of course, in the glass. While not a huge fan of the espresso martini – too sweet, too much caffeine, too late – I shall forthwith make an exception for Sammy Junior’s ‘piccolo’ martini.
“I wanted to make mine healthier, with a focus on good quality ingredients,” explains Martin. “Instead of vodka, I use rum, which has more character and body. Then I use Mr Black coffee liqueur from the NSW Central Coast – they roast their own coffee, so it is beautifully balanced – and my house espresso. I don’t use any sugar, just the natural sweetness of coconut water, which goes well with the rum.”
And the traditional garnish of three coffee beans? “I hate them” he says vehemently. “You could choke on them in your mouth.” Instead, he grinds a little bit of chocolatey cacao nib and sea salt on top, allowing the foam to carry it into your mouth and hit up your palate. “People like it a lot” he says.
Sammy Junior is at 66 King Street, Sydney.
Thanks for reading (or liking, commenting or subscribing). Copyright © 2020 Jill Dupleix. All rights reserved. I live and work on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging.