Tom and I have an incredible home bar in our house.
It’s a bad thing.īut anyway, so the concept. Unless I can do it perfectly, don’t fucking do it at all. It really isn’t, I think it’s a trait of ADHD, but it’s fucking hard because I often go ostrich mode and just bury my head in the sand and be like, oh, deal with that later. When I say I’m a perfectionist, I never mean it as a brag. And then they’re going to form their own fucking opinions and ruin everything for you.Įxactly. It’s like I’m having writer’s block with my own content.īecause you know, it’s a big deal, right? It’s your first chance to get the idea out to people. But actually writing my own brief is really fucking difficult. And we re-word and reinterpret other people’s stuff. One thing that I’m really struggling with is, you know, you and I see press releases all the time. Head bartender Wakana Murata.Īnd what’s the brief for the bar? What’s the big idea behind it? So always stay in touch, always be polite, always treat everyone with the same respect because you never know where it’s gonna lead, even almost a decade later. It just goes to show, you never quite know who you’re drinking with or where it will lead. And I was like, ‘Yeah, that was fucking good. I remember coming out of this call and Tom sitting in the living room. I’m very trusting of my gut - I’ve always been complimented that I’m a good judge of character. We got on a call and the gut feeling was just there. I was like, fuck Ruri, that’s a name that I’ve not thought of in a long time. And then fast forward to October last year, and I get a cold call on LinkedIn from a guy called Henry and he was saying Ruri Nakamura recommended me. We just followed each other on social media. We became friends, I think because I was one of the only women that drank there, we just became pals.Īnd she was crazy and fun and you know, she pursued her dream of becoming a surf instructor in Sri Lanka, and kind of never thought about her again. It was quite a male dominated bar, but there was this really nice hostess there. It was owned by a rich guy for his friends. So I’ve been in Hong Kong nine years now, and about seven or eight years ago, there was a little bar that I used to drink at. People are like, ‘there’s no money to be made in bartending,’ there is when you used to be a journalist. Yep, right? Suddenly I earn a lot more money. You’re opening a bar? You’re leaving the rivers of gold that isn’t publishing? Where: Dean & Nancy on 22, 2 Hunter St Sydney Holly Graham, and Tokyo Confidential head bartender Wakana Murata. You’ll get a taste of the drinks to come when Tokyo Confidential opens in October - the Destroy All Monsters features miso brown butter-washed Fords Gin, sherry, vermouth, ponzu the Chronic sees cacao nib Fords Gin, awamori (a distilled rice spirit from Okinawa fermented with koji), Lillet Blanc, and tonic and the Tea Sea, made with Fords Gin, grappa, sauvignon blanc, tropical green tea, lime, and smoky salt.Įxpect some flavour-forward drinks served up with a lot of energy and good times - something that Holly, as she says in the expansive interview below, wants Tokyo Confidential to bring to Japan.īelow, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, Holly talks about how and why she’s opening a bar in Tokyo (hey, it may not pay a lot but it pays better than journalism), how she wants Tokyo Confidential to feel and the gap she believes it can fill, and what to expect when she brings her own brand of raucous times and fine drinks to Sydney. Holly is a drinks and bars journalist (as the editor of Drink Magazine in Hong Kong), former academy chair for The World’s 50 Best Bars, number 9 on the 2023 Bar World 100 list, friend of Boothby - you may have heard her on this episode of Drinks At Work - and now, she’s working on the opening of her first bar, Tokyo Confidential, in Japan.Īnd Australia is getting a proper taste of Tokyo Confidential before anyone else, when Holly and her head bartender, Wakana Murata, get behind the bar at Dean & Nancy on 22.
This Thursday night, the 24th of August, will see Dean & Nancy on 22 in Sydney welcoming the one and only Holly Graham to the bar for a one night only takeover. I want to see a list with the absolute best 50 bars across the state, so please pop your noms in here.Ī ruckus this way comes. It takes just one nomination to be considered for the next round of voting, and only a few minutes to fill out. On Thursday, Holly Graham gives Sydney a first look at her forthcoming bar, Tokyo Confidential.Ī quick note up top: nominations in the Boothby Best Bars VIC awards close this coming weekend - you can nominate a bar here.
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