Maker

Maker is a chic and intimate hole-in-the-wall bar reminiscent of those found in Barcelona’s back alleys, tucked away in Fish Lane, South Brisbane.

It may be tiny but Maker literally raises the bar in Brisbane on all levels, with Jerome Patten, co-owner of Gauge café around the corner.

The interior is a cool den of black minimalism, with a copper bar overhung by ceramic pendant lights, back lit shelves and a charcuterie cabinet in the back wall, making the perfect backdrop for the artistry and theatre that occurs at the bar.

Here the drinks and food take centre stage, with sophisticated cocktails like nothing you’ll find anywhere else in Brisbane prepared with flair and artistry by the award-winning bartender in front of the customer.

Seasonal house cocktails (which contain ingredients like quandong, wattleseed, fig and frangipani and include Milk Punch, Quandong Sparkling, and Davidson Plum Gimlet) verge on a degustation experience and come in individual designer glassware with side plates. Whisky Wax Coffee is served in parts, with Australian whisky mixed with ground coffee, macadamia oil and bee pollen syrup poured over a hunk of beeswax, and served with tiny skewers of beeswax with a side of crumbled black garlic bread and honeycomb. Meanwhile Bone Marrow Whisky is a blend of whisky, port, honey, tea and orange with marrow that is cooked with a blow torch in the process.

The top quality wine list at maker is carefully curated and with the majority of reds whites and rose served by the half glass, glass or bottle while the Italian sparkling wine and French champagne is available by the glass or bottle.

For beer drinkers there’s the Maker House Saison (QLD) or Young Henrys Ale (NSW) on tap, along with Hills Cloudy Apple Cider while bottled beer includes offerings from Mt Tamborine’s Fortitude Brewing, Byron Bay’s Stone and Wood and a smattering from Victoria and NSW.

Meantime bottled cider is sourced from Tasmania’s Pagan and includes, pear, apple and cherry and quince ciders.

The same artisan flair that goes into the drinks goes into the exquisite food,* tiny seafood and protein-based morsels that are blow-torched, chopped and generally transformed into works of art before the eyes, by the executive chef and other chefs shared with Gauge.

The charcuterie cabinet meanwhile features exotic and rare offerings like venison, buffalo and wild boar as well as the more customary such as pig.

A guide to all of Brisbane's tiny bars HERE 

Take the Fish Lane Bar Crawl HERE