Jameson recently hosted a one-day festival called JJ's Place, filled with live music, exclusive beer and whiskey tastings and delicious snacks. Commune at Waterloo was taken over with raging sets from Gooch Palms, the Delta Riggs, Sloan Peterson and Display Homes, interspersed with ripper DJ spinners by the music wizards from FBi Radio.
The festival launched Jameson Caskmates IPA editions, a blended Irish whiskey finished in punchy IPA beer barrels. The hoppy, smooth whiskey was served up the way it is best enjoyed, with fresh lemon and tonic. Other delicious selections from the Jameson Caskmates family include the stout with soda and orange; the hard shandy; and a limited edition Young Henrys Irish pale ale boilermaker.
The festival may be over but you still have a chance to try Jameson Caskmates IPA editions at these great Sydney whiskey bars. Just tell 'em JJ sent you.
Sydney is pretty enamoured with the backlit wall of whisky at Baxter Inn, accessible only by scrolling library ladders or by having your well-coiffed bartender climb along the counters like some sort of arborial gentleman. The lines of admirers stretched from outside the tatty door in an old loading dock in the city and almost back out onto Clarence Street, and they’re all waiting for a little nip of Jameson Caskmates IPA edition to warm their bootleg bones.
Ramblin’ Rascal Tavern has all the trappings of a dive bar. You’ve got the pin-ups behind the bar along with wrestling championship belts, silly hats and a flamingo. They keep the lights low, the crunchy corn kernels coming and swampy saloon tunes cranking. But they have a secret superpower, and we’re not talking about the impressive Cognac collection and the availability of Jameson Caskmates IPA edition. The overalls-clad barstaff are as hospitable as they come and whip up exciting drinks with a side of bar chat that can’t be beat.
The heart of the business district isn’t where you’d expect to find an underground heavy metal pizza party, but Frankie’s Pizza by the Slice doesn’t much go in for the expected. The front room feels like a pizza parlour from a movie set, but it’s more Ninja Turtles than Sopranos. Through the saloon doors is Frankie’s dark side – the bar and band room is where the spirit of Sydney rock lives, and if you want to stoke the inner fires with the demon drink, squeeze into the concealed whisky room to knock back some Jameson.
Enjoy your whiskey with a flair of prohibition and plenty of class? J&M is a secret whiskey cocktail bar squirreled happily away above the old timers’ joint, the Angel Hotel. Ask them nice and we bet they’d turn their Scottish classic, the Highland Island Cooler, Irish by sneaking in a shot of special edition Jameson with the fruity base of pineapple and rhubarb shrub, pineapple juice and coconut water.
Having a taste for fine Scotch, elegant Japanese whiskies and American drams doesn’t come cheap, unless you’re spending your Monday nights at Grain Bar below the Four Seasons Hotel down at Circular Quay. Mondays are a historically tricky night to fill a bar, but here the room is pumping with business people finishing out their day with the whisky specials of the night – $30 whisky flights and 20 per cent off the whisky list. Sounds like the perfect time to inhale as much speciality Jameson as possible.
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