Consultancy Services - Two Fingers Canggu, Bali

Two Fingers, Canggu, is the latest installation from Bali’s newest hospitality guns that brought you ‘Nude cafe’, ‘Kembali Bumbak’, and ‘Front cafe’. Sitting right in the heart of the busy streets of Berowa, Canguu, this modern Mexican eatery is bursting with character and heavy on the Melbourne, New York & Mexico city vibes.

We were approached to construct a cocktail menu that lends its influences not just from the food, but the fit out, culture and of course the location. Bali is no stranger to Mexican food - with Hotel Mexicola being the obvious juggernaut on the Island. However the team at Two Fingers didn’t want to go down the same path. We decided on a direction that eliminated the volume based ethos of other restaurants and bars in the area, instead focusing on delicate flavours, difficult to acquire alcohol. (Bali is notoriously hard to source good liquors) and interesting combinations. We also decided that the place needed highly experienced and trained bar staff to keep quality and consistency the focus of the cocktail menu - so that was our first (daunting) Task.

After many ‘'research’’ trips to the best and up and coming cocktail bars on the Island, we eventually got lucky when we found a couple of guys with the experience and passion we were looking for. We got straight to work with the team about two weeks before the doors opened and began in the kitchen of one of the owners villas, frantically cooking up syrups, infusing tequilas, vodkas, whiskeys and rums, juicing every weird local fruit we could get our hands on, to the delight of his house mates!

We generally begin with around 30 recipes that we whittle down as time goes on, keeping what works and canning the rest. I had a recipe for a strawberry balsamic daiquiri that I wanted to make work so badly but it was one of the unlucky ones that didn’t make the cut, which happens about 15 times during the process. I always feel bad that I cant bring them to life or to the standard I had in my head, but thats how it goes.

After a couple of long days the menu started to come together in the way we hoped. Highlights for me were ‘The Narco’ - Cacao Infused Blanco Tequila, Kahlua and fresh Pineapple juice… The ‘Pink Lips’ - Jalepenõ infused tequila, Pomegranate Syrup, Whites and The “Dark and Stormy’ With our homemade Ginger Beer. As well as the variety of Espresso martinis on offer - 1800 coconut tequila cold drip coffee anyone?

The guys took a gamble paying Australian prices for the alcohol and keeping the drink prices local, but we all found that the customer can definitely taste the difference. With praise pouring over the bar and customers literally back 4 nights in a row (Island life, eh?) we felt the menu was a total success.

Looking forward to the next one lads!

T

https://www.theurbanlist.com/perth/a-list/two-fingers-canggu

http://twofingersbali.com/

Consultancy Services - Sandbar, Surfers Paradise

Sandbar (or Surfers Sandbar to most of you) started its life a whopping 19 years ago overlooking the infamous Surfers paradise esplanade. Focusing mostly on craft beers and their famous buffet breakfasts, the business chugged along happily for most of that time until the business started to stagnate a little in recent years.

Although having its fair share of loyal locals, the business owners realised that Sandbar needed to be appeal to a new demographic of clientele, who, among other things, have gained a taste for bespoke cocktails and top quality wines and beers. This would be no small task, as a completely new fit-out would be required to transform the venue into what the spectacular views called for; A modern, fun and stylish beach club. 

We were given the task of developing and creating a cocktail menu to suit this new style of venue, developing a wine menu while introducing our favourite suppliers, hiring and training staff for the bar and floor, developing and executing floor and bar services and procedures, assisting in budgets and most of all lending our 10 years of knowledge and experience of this industry to the owners. 

We created a 21 drink cocktail menu that was in part inspired from the tropical beaches of Bali, Brazil and Mexico - think Coconuts, Papaya, Banana.... Tiki Cocktails, Coconut Margaritas, Lavender caipirinha's... And Balanced it out with smoked old fashioned's, Blueberry G&T's, and a lots of our other favourite creations. 

Once that was done, then came the task of training staff in how to make and serve them! This was made a whole lot easier by the lady of the Bar, Manager Laura Lindley. She was a superstar from day one and picked up the massive task of learning how to Prepare and manage ingredients for this huge list with ease! We worked with Laura in the best, most efficient ways to train not just the bar staff, but also the floor staff on the new wines and cocktails. We wanted everyone to know and have tried each drink so as to be confident in interacting with customers and trying to get that all important up-sell at tables. 

With the opening night attended by the who's who of the Gold Coasts journalists, bloggers and celebrities, the owners we're especially anxious to make sure everything was going to run smoothly. We, as always were prepared to get our hands dirty and jump behind the bar ensure a smooth service, however, all the necessary steps were executed before the doors opened and Laura and her team were ready to rock from day one. We were able to relax and enjoy the fruits of the past two months labour and drink cocktails from the other (fun) side of the bar!

-Terry

Working with Terry was an experience I won't soon forget. His knowledge and passion for hospitality are inspiring to see as most people with as much time spent in the industry are jaded and bored. His attitude from day one was as professional as it was fun to be around, he was always inclusive and approachable to staff and always had time for my idea's and input.  His cocktails are also some of the tastiest creations I have tried and i loved serving and chatting about them to our clientele. Terry would also drop by weekly to chat to me and the other managers about what was and wasn't working and really wanted to make sure everything was as good as it could be. 

Laura Lindley - Bar Manager, Sandbar

https://www.theurbanlist.com/goldcoast/a-list/new-sandbar-surfers-paradise

New Website!

After a few nervous weeks trying to figure out the new word press update, we finally gave up and moved to Square Space! We found it a much easier process to upload and embed videos's of our parties and generally a much friendlier platform for our amateur website developer (James Connell of the Communal House) who did an AMAZING job! 

We're pretty pumped to be able to share photo's and video's of our events on the site so easily, so stay tuned and look out for new blog posts weekly for party inspiration, cocktail idea's and more!

Terry