Raise a glass to Alfred St Bar & Bottlo – the new hybrid Fortitude Valley haunt from the Brewski team
When Antoinette Pollock and Matt Emmerson closed Brewski earlier this year, they did so knowing that they’d open another venue. They had no interest in resurrecting their pioneering pint-pourer, however – at least not in the way fans of the craft-beer bar might have been expecting.
Alfred St Bar & Bottlo, tucked away on the fringe of Fortitude Valley’s nightlife nexus, isn’t Brewski. If anything, it’s an evolved version of Ant and Matt’s other booze-centric concept, My Beer Dealer – the drink-in bottle shop the pair first launched underneath their Caxton Street headquarters in 2018, and expanded with satellite locations in Morningside and Clayfield. Even before Brewski shuttered, the duo decided that operating boutique bottle shops was the way they wanted to go – responding to the pinch of cost-of-living pressures by offering a range of drinks at a more economical price point.
Taking over the split-level space formerly home to gin bar Dutch Courage, Alfred St Bar & Bottlo is exactly that – a boozer and bottle shop hybrid that brings elements of Brewski and My Beer Dealer together into one handy dual-nature concept. The joint officially opened last week, welcoming its first wave of guests – many of whom were long-time fans of Brewski and members of My Beer Dealer’s Froth Society.
“Some said it’s like they’ve come back home,” said Ant. “So for those people who know us from Brewski or My Beer Dealer, they feel like it just looks like us and that’s really comforting.”
Of course, Matt and Ant haven’t instigated a 180-degree brand pivot – Brewski’s DNA pumps through Alfred St Bar & Bottlo, which hawk-eyes will see boasts traces of the bar’s character infused with existing elements kept from Dutch Courage.
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“My Beer Dealer was a love child of Brewski, so there are certain elements,” says Matt. “We’ve actually got the original bar top of Brewski in the middle there and we’ve got the plant wall that we had in the back. So there’s going to be a lot of nods to what we did there.”
The front of the venue’s street level is dedicated to seating, with group-sized tables arranged near the door and stools perched along a bench (made from the original Brewski bartop) that runs down the middle of the space. A bank of fridges line the left-hand side of the venue, while more wine shelves are located past the bar. The mezzanine level is largely untouched, offering room for overflow and private functions (as well as Brewski’s trivia nights, which we hear will soon be kickstarted here).
“I think we’ve made it our own space,” says Matt, “We started with great bones – from a bar that had a great reputation. It was always a challenge in regards to how much we needed to change it to make it ours. But it feels like it’s a My Beer Dealer now.”
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The bottle-shop range is bigger than that of Caxton Street, with a handpicked selection of craft-beer, low-intervention wine and artisanal spirits featured across fridges and shelves. As always, the team is championing independently made booze first and foremost, and while the range has a distinct Australian lean, the crew isn’t afraid to look further abroad for top drops crafted with a similar ethos. When it came to shaping Alfred St’s bar offering, however, Ant and Matt have opted for a ‘less is more’ approach.
“We wanted to simplify our lives a lot, starting with the beer offering,” says Matt. “Instead of having 16 taps to play with, we’ve cut that down to six and we’re probably not going to rotate as much. Our variety is in the fridges – there’s probably going to be about 450 beers you can choose from, so it’s still a fantastic range.”
“The fridges are going to be the heroes and the tap beers will be considered carefully as we rotate them,” adds Ant. “We plan to keep a gluten-free beer on the taps at all times.”
ap beers currently include a Japanese lager from Newstead Brewing Co., a Baltic porter from Heads of Noosa and a West Coast IPA from Seven Mile Brewing Co. These are joined by a tidy by-the-glass wine list showcasing hand-picked options from the bottle shop range, while a solid back bar will funnel into a concise list of cocktails.
While food is also a big aspect of the Alfred St equation, this is also an area of considerable change. Gone is the dude-food menu – in its place is a range of snacks like Cajun-style boiled peanuts, small plates of Nepalese-style chicken dumplings, grilled oyster mushroom skewers (from Urban Valley Mushrooms around the corner) and crispy pork belly, and mains like karaage tofu baos, poke bowls and vegan and vegetarian-friendly cheeseburgers.
“We’ve been conscious about changing the menu quite dramatically,” says Ant. “We’ve brought across maybe one or two items, but we did want to do a different food offering – people change, the market changes and it’s also a different site. We feel like this may be good for an after-work knock-off when you might want something to nibble on, so here it’s just a bit more share-plate-y and a little bit more informal.”
While the past six months have been chaotic for Ant and Matt, to say the least, the duo is excited about the new chapter they’re penning in The Valley and the potential for Alfred St Bar & Bottlo to evolve into something as beloved by locals as Brewski was in its heyday.
“I think what’s exciting about The Valley is how many people are moving here and living here,” says Ant. “They’re people who maybe don’t have a backyard and they want somewhere that feels warm and comfortable, and feels like home but not in their tiny flat. We want to be that place where they feel like they can get out of their own four walls and chill, be welcomed and feel relaxed.”
Alfred St Bar & Bottlo is now open to the public. Operating hours and other details can be found in the Stumble Guide.