Cocktail hour at Ethos
Ahhhh, the luscious combination of sugar, fruit,
cream, chocolate, herbs and spices, and of course, hiccup, alkihole. The
cocktail.
The cocktail bar is a hard to come by establishment
in our Hobart town. There are plenty of places that make them of course, Grape,
Cargo, Barcelona, the Grand Chancellor, Mures Upperdeck, T42, Raincheck etc etc
etc, along with just general chug-a-lugging, and meal eating. Let’s call these
the multipurpose establishment.
A more intimate abode, purposed purely for the
enjoyment of a quite tipple before a meal, is much more elusive.
Ethos has risen to the challenge. One of Hobart’s
better restaurants has branched out, and upstairs, opening a cocktail enclave.
The Two Girls were very excited. Off we toddled for
Friday night cocktail hour and met our mixologist for the evening, the polite
and professional Christian.
Ethos’s err, ethos, is food with honesty from
sources with integrity. If you haven’t, you must, but it’s not a meal to be
rushed so make it an event. Their ethos is as expected, fashioning the
cocktails on order.
It’s topshelf, native river mint, home made bitters
and sous vide.
These are exquisite edifices with attention to
detail.
Each has a local story, to be drunk in a
sophisticated setting, grey clothed chairs, deer horns and cowhide.
Between us we tried four cocktails. A little
overwhelmed with their effort, we sipped our initiation, impressed by the Ethos Rhubarb Sparking with its cryovaced
rhubarb and vanilla poached with Tasmanian sparkling, $16 and the Apricot and Lemon Thyme Bronx with fresh thyme, house made apricot jam, Lark distillery gin, Blanco and Rosso Vermouth and fresh oranage, $22.
The cocktails range from $16 to $24. It’s
the upper end and you’re paying for locavore and quality.
The chairs are more aesthetic than functional and a
little furniture shuffling was required to get near comfortable with the Other
Girl threatening to climb up on one of the wooden high stools in preference.
Content with our first round, we moved on to the Moochilada with Mezcal, hotsauce and celery bitters topped up with Moo Brew Pilsner, $18 and the Basil Faulty, McHenry Tasmanian Gin, freshly picked basil and lemon, $22. Both were lamentable. Choose carefully.
To complement our drinks and line our stomachs we
chose the Charcuterie, with terrine, three cured meats, their own seeded
mustard and a handful of sliced rustic bread, $22. A wholesome valued plate
because everything had been made by hand, just downstairs. We’ve had similar
recently, $30 at Pumphouse and $16 at Sutton’s Pop Up Kitchen, but this was by
far the best.
Predictably we needed more bread and were served up
the bread and fresh butter, $2.50. House made butter is practically cream,
de-lish.
As much as we love a cocktail, we won’t be
hightailing it back there, but you might see us for a pre-dinner drink when we
next decide to dine at Ethos.
Is this high end or pretentious? We’d love to hear you
views, let us know if you go!
You can find Ethos Eat Drink at 100 Elizabeth Street Hobart and on 03 6231 1165.
