Round-the-world plane tickets are getting cheaper and cheaper, but a couple of cocktails still sets you back a whole lot less. Jackalberry, the all-day cocktail bar in the Hyatt Regency hotel, aims to take you here, there and everywhere with cocktails inspired by the age of exploration, spotlighting techniques and ingredients from all corners of the map.
Begin a drinking journey in Japan with an Arashiyama – which blends sake with Roku gin, green apple liqueur, cucumber and kiwifruit – before jetting off to Brazil via a coconut and cachaça-based concoction with custard apple and lime foam. Other tipples take their cues from places like Mexico, London and Tanzania.
Snacks take a similar worldly approach, with finger-food favourites such as Vietnamese rice paper rolls and Argentinean-style beef empanadas stacked up against the more substantial likes of Italian burrata with heirloom tomatoes and garlic toast and Persian-style lamb kofte skewers.
The snazzy interiors come courtesy of Belinda Cendron from Sourceress, who has worked her magic on some of the city’s most decked-out drinking establishments, including the Baxter Inn, the Winery in Surry Hills and Shady Pines Saloon. Here, she’s used evocatively illustrated wallpaper, lush greenery, velvet booths and plenty of curiosities like seashells, masks and old books to channel a look that’s both exotic and familiar, lived-in yet totally here-and-now.