Charlie Parker's is a cocktail bar downstairs from restaurant Fred's in Sydney, Australia. Above both of them is a rooftop garden where they have a 20,000-resident beehive, lots of edible produce, and composting. Our compost bins take care of 90% of all bar waste and our top to tail plastic free approach has seen major success from exclusively using grain straws (or no straws), to all drink prep being stored in food safe mason jars that double as epic sous vide vessels. Our garnishes are made out of the by products from our preps and, our citrus soda is the... Read more →

I recently attended an online talk by Luis Hernandez of Cocktail Illustrators. Hernandez is one of the leading bar experts in using various alternative acids to replace citrus in cocktails. Here's an older story on some ways that he does this. One new tip I picked up in the talk (I'd link to it if I could remember where it was) is another way to prevent browning in cocktail ingredients. When ingredients that turn brown after cutting, such as avocados, apples, celery, avocados, and other cut fruit, they can either be preserved to prevent discoloration and oxidation, or discarded. When... Read more →