Luke Whearty. Australia, Singapore, lifework and local ingredients

Luke Whearty’s lifework is all about bar. Origin from Australia, he is a co-owner of Operation Dagger in Singapore, the place in a list of World’s 50 Best Bars. Soon he is planning to open Byrdi – a brand-new bar in his home city of Melbourne. Operation Dagger is all about technologies and scientific approach while Byrdi is about typical Australian ingredients. In bar industry Luke is famous for his love for local products. Wherever he comes, he makes drinks with something local. His visit to Saint-Petersburg was the same. He came here for the first time, though he had been to Russia few times before. So I strived to El Copitas bar to try four cocktails he made there.

Local character

Luke: “Together with El Copitas Guys we have analyzed local ingredients and looked for them in Saint-Petersburg. Finally, my four drinks are what I have prepared in advance or just invented a few hours before my guest shift. I wanted to use something familiar for you and to make curious combinations.”

I should say, he was successful in his experiments. First drink had clear taste of mushrooms, honey and baked pear. The second – birch and jelly. The third – sour backed milk, sea buckthorn and honey. And the last one – beet, red wine vinegar and mint.

Luke Whearty in El Copitas Bar

Artem Peruk, co-owner of El Copitas Bar: “Luke is very cool, we met long time ago, first at Paris fair, than in New Orleans. We were waiting for his visit to Russia, especially to Saint-Petersburg. Finally he came. This year Luke judged one of the stages of Diageo Reserve World Class 2019 . And we are friends with them for a long time. Some kindred judges usually come to Moscow and Petersburg. So we invited Luke and he gladly accepted invitation. We were interested to take part in his projects and find his approaches to new cocktail technicks. Byrdi – a project based on local ingredients, connecting cocktail and regional culture. Luke asked us to find local cheese, mushrooms and oils. He came one day before, we made some preparations and now everybody is happy”.

After such presentation I just couldn’t stay away and interviewed Luke personally.

Local ingredients

Today we talk a lot about local ingredients. What local products do you use?

Birdie opens this year in July and focuses using everything local. Using Australian ingredients and working with some small producers: farmers, beer brewers, coffee roasters and also seasonal products. 

Could you specify what is Australian local products are?

Goes away and comes back with a small herbal- or alchemist-like case.

Strawberry gum leaves for example. And this one is fennel it grows wild and we pick it. One of the cocktails we make for bottled cocktail is fennel (Sazerak) . Traditional Sazerak is brandy based, we use Australian brandy, and we make it a bit similar to bitters bee shots but not that using lilly pilly. And absent is very hard to get. You can not get Australian absent. And we wanted to make something natural. That is why during summer time we pick up fennel when it blossoms and dry it.

Luke opens one of his small fairy boxes with green grass inside. It smells like anis.

Australian plants

And this one is another native Australian plant – wattle, it is like chocolate with scent of coffee. This one is really cool you can use it instead of coffee and chocolate. This is endemic Australian plant, it has yellow flowers and seeds, and we roast them to make some cocktails.

There is another box with something crushed, looks like chocolate or nutmeg. It smells incredibly good. I wish my morning coffee would smell the same way.

And this one is distilled lemon myrtle. We distillate it.

There is yellow concentrated liquid inside. It looks more like oil, than distillate. It really smells like fresh lemon and citron.

That’s just four things that we use among others but this are Australian native. Some ingredients we using were not native but they grow in Australia. For example when I first wanted to open Birdie I was thinking, what can’t I get, what’s gonna be restricted?

Byrdi and Operation Dagger

When did you start to think about Byrdi? 

Actually 3-4 years ago.

When you going to open it? 

I think we start constructing in April. At the moment we just designing the space. It’s going to have 75 places, three bars, Australian kitchen.

And how long Operation Dagger is opened. 

5 years.

The concepts are similar? 

Actually not. Operation Dagger is more about using modern techniques to create something a little bit new. Kind of  similar to this bar as well (El Copitas) – kind of underground, there is no sign, speak-easy. That sort of thing. Operation Dagger is just to give something different. Actually In Singapore it is really hard. There little of local ingredients. Everything in Singapore is important. It is an amazing city built on water which is similar to Saint-Petersburg  and not a lot of local things grow there. 

Why you get that name for the new Bar – Byrdi? 

Byrdi is basically like a bird, adopting to its environment. So when we are in Australia, we use everything in the area. And when we fly to another countries, we try to use local ingredients there. But some times we get seeds spread just like birds do flying from one place to another. And similar to them I brought here strawberry gum. And I hope I give some brand-new ideas to local bartenders.

Singapore

Why did you decide to go to Singapore? 

It’s just that I meant my business partner there. I lived in Singapore in 2009, then I moved back to Australia. And then a friend of mine who is a famous chief in Singapore, Rayan Cliff from Tippling Club called me and said: I think you should come back and open a bar. So I went with my girlfriend to Singapore to have a look, because actually it is changing a lot. That’s we have been opened. After we opened, Singapore just exploded. It was crazy, so many bars opened up,  so we were lucky doing it in time. 

To live and to work in Asia

Did you have any difficulties while launching in Singapore? 

Staff, finding around people. Actually, the older generation in Singapore do not want their children to work in service industry. Five years ago if come home in Singapore and tell your parents, I am going to be a bartender, they don’t like that, because they want their children to be doctors, lawyers and that sort of thing. Now its changing a little bit, young people want that type of jobs. There are a lot of bars winning world best bar prizes. So the system is improving, but at the start it was hard. The younger generation just didn’t want to work. For me its hard to accept that because it took us a long way to build all that and young people just say: “No I don’t have to do that”.  Some other problems were working restrictions and getting visas. And for me personally it was hard to come there, as there are no local ingredients. There are even no seasons there! 

And were are all ingredients come from? 

Pretty much comes from Malaysia.

I know that Singapore is pretty expensive city. Is it more expensive then living in Australia? 

With some things yes, like rents and food. But it can be quite cheap if you eat local food. Chicken fries you can get for 3-4 dollars. Australia can also be expensive but if you know locals and if you know places, it can be cheap as well. 

Low-ABV Cocktails

Did you notice a trend for low-ABV and free-alcohol cocktails in Singapore and Australia? 

Yes, its all the same actually, very similar. 

Do you like this trend? 

Actually, I do. For me it’s good, because people ordering low-alcohol drink take two or three instead of one. And also just like in Saint-Petersburg, in Singapore there are a lot of bars and people usually do pub-crawl. So in case you have strong cocktails, you get drunk after two bars. 

Russia

I know this is your first time in Russia. What do you think about service in bars here, bartenders’ level?

This is the only bar I’ve seen in Saint-Petersburg, but I love it. And this guys are really cool, they have attention to service and really fast in their job. For example in Melbourne, service is really slow. And I love this idea – quick and friendly. 

And what about other places, in Moscow? 

In Moscow I’ve been to several really cool bars as well. One was called Voda, another one, I think they have the same owners, looked like Mexican canteen, similar to this. Then there was Korobok – really cool bar as well.  I think Russia has a good bar scene. I think people from other countries need to see that. 

What are you going to present at your cocktail card tomorrow and day after at World Class Night market “Around the World”? 

I am going to make cocktails based on Asian ingredients. Three drinks that I am making are all Japanese. My wife is actually half-Japanese, so I am using Japanese ingredients a lot. Like miso, uzu, godji and others. Actually, at night market there going to be food as well – Japanese sushi. Combination with food makes a lot of sense for me. 

Lifework

What do you really like to do while making cocktails? What do you want to do every time? 

I just want to work with local seasonal ingredients, whatever is fresh. Because this way you always learn something new. 

What about Russian specialties? 

Here I really like to use dried pears. I think it is very common in Russia, but I come across it for the first time. 

Your team – is it from your homeland? 

No, actually it is all international. 

And what are your best advices for bartenders? 

Just be yourself, be friendly, work hard, fast and always learn something new. 

Info

The first bar, co-owned by Luke Whearty, is Operation Dagger. Since the first year it has been gathering awards: “Best New bar-2015” (Singapore Bar Awards), Top-10 World Bars 2015 by Tales of the Cocktail, Top-30 by Condé Nast Traveler. In 2016 Operation Dagger took 21st place at World’s 50 Best Bars. Luke is well known for his passion for local ingredients. Probably his new project Byrdi – the core of his passion – going to become world famous and well appreciated. As this is the lifework and his dream which comes true.

Photos by Polina Mayskaya