By Sacha Delfosse
Capping off an eventful year for the bar, Melbourne's 1806 has unveiled a new combined cocktail book and menu that is available for purchase by patrons.
Researched and written by bar manager Nick Reed and consultant James Tait, the new book – 1806 Cocktails: World History as seen through the bottom of a glass – is made up of six chapters that examine the relationship between world events of a particular era and the corresponding evolution of mixed drinks – with an accompanying list of drinks from that period of time.
The beautifully designed book is decorated with hand-sketched illustrations that are based on photos taken by 1806 owner, Lisa Kelly.
The cocktail book also doubles as 1806's new cocktail menu – except that the version available for sale includes the complete recipes for the drinks. The 1806 bar team has made the effort to create the classic cocktails as close as possible to their original form.
This means they have created a number of house made ingredients such as peach brandy, dry orange liqueur, coco lopez and grenadine, while most drinks are also served over crystal clear hand cut blocks of ice that are painstakingly prepared in-house every week.
The book is available for purchase from the bar, good book stores and also online at www.1806.com.au.
It follows the recent addition of a new section to the venue, The Understudy, and the launch of the bar's own 1806 beer.