The tippling club

After my recent trip to Seoul I was fortunate to be able to fly home via Singapore so I took the chance to check out the sister bar to one of my favourite Melbourne establishments, Der Raum, The Tippling Club.

The Tippling Club diverges from Der Raum in that it is also a high end eatery.  The apparent realisation of a long held dream between Matthew Bax and his chef friend Ryan Clift, The Tippling Club (I’m feeling lazy so am just going to refer to is as TTC from now) positions itself at the upper end of Singapore’s restaurant scene. Specialising in small plates and degustation offerings, the menu offers both 5 and 10 course options with & without accompanying cocktails.  According to their website the goal was to create “one big chef’s table, engrossing and drawing the customer into the kitchen and bar and to experience all the magic of the creative process”.

So it was with much anticipation that I arrived at TTC on a Friday night with a couple of friends.  As you walk down the path to restaurant you pass the tippling terrace which gives the first hint of it’s relationship to Der Raum, the terrace is ordained with hanging bottles.

As you then enter the restaurant you are greeted with an impressive view of the kitchen through a large window as well as a fascinating collection of ingredients in bottles which add to the lab feel.

I will  venture a little from the review here and give some background to the visit. Having realised I may have the opportunity to travel via Singapore, I had contacted a friend from Seattle who had recently moved back to Singapore and arranged to catch up and suggested the idea of visiting TTC. She was keen and had another of her old friends visiting from Hong Kong for the weekend, so we arranged a reservation through Josh from Der Raum for the 3 of us for Friday night. Curious as to what this interesting venue had to offer, my friend then took a small group to TTC a couple of weeks before our visit and had left a little less than impressed with the service.  I had contacted Josh about this and he provided an email address to which I forwarded the tale of her experience prior to our arrival.

So back to our visit, when we arrived, we were running a little late, so apologised for our tardiness but as there was no record of our booking, this was not such an issue.  Interestingly this was a similar experience to that which my friend had experienced a couple of weeks prior. This wasn’t an issue though as we were guided to some seats at the bar and were presented with our menus.

TTC has an interesting feel to it.  The seating area overlooks a garden and is covered by a steel & canvas annex that extends from the old building.  While we got the intent of the space, our group was left feeling that it had a bit of a temporary garden marquee feel to it.

But TTC is supposed to be all about the food and drink, so back to menu.  TTC has 3 menus on offer, one for cocktails, the tasting menu and then an ala carte option.  We started with the cocktail menu and decided to go with a Mb Apple Pie, A Clover Club & a Smokey old bastard.  This unfortunately was the second instance where we found the service to be lacking. Within a couple of minutes of sitting down we were asked if we were ready to order, as we were still making our way through the menu, we asked for a couple of minutes.  This then turned into what seemed like 15 minutes, so we flagged down one of the numerous staff and put in our drinks order.

Once our orders had been taken, we were then surprised by how rapidly they appeared. As we were seated at the bar, we were also rather disappointed by the fact that the drinks had been made out of site and were then presented to us with no explanation of the individual drinks nor confirmation that they were satisfactory.

At this point we hadn’t decided on dinner yet, so we asked for the food menu and were presented with the tasting menu.  During our time at the bar we had seen a

number of very impressive  small plates being ferried out to waiting patrons.  From what we saw, TTC does not disappoint when it comes to presentation.  Immaculately crafted with an obvious attention to detail, the reports from my friend’s previous visit were that the tastes match the appearance.

With none of us feeling like indulging in the full 5 or 10 course experience we then asked for the ala carte menu.  Once again this was summarily presented to us with no further explanation nor enquiry as to whether we had any further questions.

By this stage we had been at TTC for close to an hour and had been rather underwhelmed by the service we had received so it was decided that we would relocate to another restaurant for dinner and continue our evening there.

With the cheque paid, we were waiting for the return of the card and the receipt when Ryan Clift came over to check on our experience and see how everything was. We briefly discussed our drinks and complemented him on the menu before we departed.

As we left, we set about discussing our experience. We were universal in our praise of our drinks, their presentation and the menu.  The Smokey old bastard was indeed smokey, the house infused cigar bourbon presented in the tall jar adding to the experience.  The ladies’ clover club & MB Apple pie where both thoroughly enjoyed.  The MB apple pie tasting exactly like it’s namesake while the presentation in the cardboard box making it reminiscent of child’s juice box.

As you may have guessed from the overall tone though, we all left disappointed with the experience.  When you head to a high end establishment, quality ingredients & excellent products are expected, as is exceptional service, and this is where we universally felt the experience was lacking. Be it the lack of introduction or explanation of the menu & the drinks, the mishandled reservations or the construction of the drinks on the other side of the bar, a commitment to looking after the customer was not felt.

For my friend who had been a few weeks prior, this was a repetition of the experience of her party.  For their visit, reservations had been made and when they arrived, there was no record of the reservation, again though they were seated without issue.  The server was informed that one of the party would need to be leaving for the airport in an hour so they would like all the dishes to be brought out together.  The order itself was taken incorrectly and the dishes where then brought out separately, resulting in the member of the party who had to head to the airport not getting to sample any of the food offerings. 

I was very much looking forward to my visit to TTC, but left disappointed. I have no issue paying top dollar for a quality experience. TTC has first rate ingredients, an innovative and interesting menu, with well made drinks & food, but it is all let down by a service experience that is more in keeping with a roadside take away than an establishment that expects customers to be paying $100 to $200+ (70 to 140 USD) per head.

I have no doubt that some people will get the service experience that is expected, and the various accolades that TTC has received would support that, but you would have thought that given the prior notice of our booking, the explanation on arrival that I was in Singapore primarily to visit the restaurant, and the prior notice of one of the party having had a less than stellar experience on her previous visit that at least some effort would have been made to ensure that we had a memorable experience.  Sadly we did, but for all the wrong reasons.

*TTC has a policy of no photography, thus the lack of visual additions to this post.  Images are available on their website for those who are interested.

 

Der raum

Another week on the road has seen me back in the Melbourne and that of course meant some visits to a couple of my favourite bars and foremost amongst those is the world renowned Der Raum which I had actually intended to write a review of as part of a follow up to my Melbourne Bars Pt1 post from last year, but as seems to happen, time got away from me and it didn’t happen, so I figured I owed them their own review.

So here it is, nine months on from my first visit and I’m finally putting my thoughts into something that is supposed to be at least vaguely coherent.

In what seems to be something that Melbourne bars pride themselves, Der Raum plays it low key from the outside.  Located on the busy Church St in North Richmond, it is just on the edge of the restaurant & cafe strip with a rather unassuming front porch with some dark wooden slats across the front windows.  As you walk in, the lighting is low and you are greeted by low seating and the bar that takes up the centre of the room.  In reading the reviews of Der Raum, I had heard mention of the unusual bar layout but was not prepared for the visual impact.

The story goes that Mathew Bax, the man behind both Der Raum, it’s Singaporean sister The Tippling club and a supporter of local artists, had been looking for a solution to the lack of space to store the multitude of bottles required by any respectable cocktail bar and engaged the services of a Melbourne artist to work out a solution that was both practical but also worthy of artistic merit.  The answer … Hang the bottles from the ceiling on bungy cord.  Each bottle has a ring attached to the neck and the bottles are simply pulled down & unhooked when required.  It is truly one of those solutions that is incredible simple & elegant, but just works so well.

I must admit to not being in a huge hurry to get to Der Raum on my first visit to Melbourne. The stories of the funky hanging bottles and its reputation for molecular mixology were leaving me a little cold.  My preference was for a bar to be about great drinks & service, and not so much about gimmicks.  Within 5 minutes of arriving at Der Raum for the first time, all my fears were allayed.

A quick glance at the menu and you quickly find a mix of the classics as well as a great combination of house specials as well as signature cocktails from bars like London’s Milk & Honey. Now as you can see from the photos below, the liquid nitrogen definitely makes for a spectacle, be it the Nitro Martini or the Bees Knees with its snap frozen honey.  You almost wish they had a few Jacobs ladder and guy collecting glasses named Igor.

But to focus on wafting mists of the liquid nitrogen is to really sell this great bar short.  Like any quality establishment, the total experience is a mix of quality ingredients, made into great product by staff with both a passion for their craft and great customer service.

And this pretty much sums up Der Raum. On the ingredient side, you will find all the usual top shelf fare, which is then further embellished with a range of ingredients that are imported by the house.  Tequila, Mezcal, Rum or bitters are just some of the ingredients that they source from far & wide.  Even if your tastes are simpler, little things like the absence of a post mix gun & an insistence on quality mixers highlight their commitment to their craft.  You will also find a number of house made ingredients as well.  On my last visit I was treated to a camomile infused vermouth as a starter.  This house special combined the dryness of a vermouth with the herbal tones of camomile and was topped of with some liquid nitrogen for effect.

 

The guys are happy to work with you on your drinks as well.  The menu provides a great starting point, but if it’s all a little over whelming then Josh & the rest of the team are more than happy to offer suggestions or whip up something based on your input.

As an example, on my last visit I had the idea that I wanted to combine the flavours of chocolate, rum & ginger beer.  The result is what you see to the left.  A variation on a Chicago Fizz, this time, sans the port with the addition of mole bitters & ginger beer.  Or the mezcal old fashioned to the right (if your wondering why the glass is looking a little low, it was due to the fact that I was enjoying the drink so much, it only occurred to me that I should take a photo after having consumed a few sips).

For those who prefer their drinks more as the maker intended, Der Raum offers an extensive selection of absinthe, tequila, rum & whiskey as well as beer and wine for those so inclined.

Speaking of tequila, Wednesday nights offer 20% all tequilas and mezcals. Der Raum also is home to the Melbourne Temperance Society which providers members with discounts on both drinks and the regular special evenings which Der Raum hosts.

The one thing that is missing from the Der Raum menu though is food.  While there are rudimentary snacks available, Der Raum should not be viewed as venue for supper.  There are however, a number of food establishments close by, so a little preplanning is advised for those seeking more substantial consumptions.

It is also worth noting that you don’t want to leave it till too late in the evening as arrivals after 1am will be greeted by the sorry site of a closed establishment.

 

Der Raum can be found at 438 Church St, Richmond.