Which way to the cocktail bar?

With so many small wine bars now in Perth and surrounding areas, us Barchivists are now faced with so many choices of where to go. So how do we decide which venue to go to for our monthly meeting? Well, when the 1907 Bar advertises that they have Lustrous Thursdays where all cocktails are $10, the choice is made a lot simpler. We were determined to make August 12 a Lustrous Thursday.

Turns out that the attraction of $10 cocktails also entices other small wine bar groups. Turns out a rival group, the Second Thursday Wine Bar Group was also there that night. Can I just say, I am so glad that we have a witty name for our group.

Anyway, nearly everyone who attended the meeting on this night has something to say, so I am going to let them do most of the talking but I will provide a prologue about the trouble nearly every Barchivist had in getting to the right part of this venue.

1907 has an upstairs restaurant and a downstairs bar. When you walk through the gates labelled 1907 the first thing you see is the stairway leading up so naturally up you go. So it was with nearly every one of us. We went up and through the doors to be greeted by a woman with a clipboard. She asked each of us something like ““is your name Alex?” or “are you with the Bridal party?” Our responses tended to be something like “I’m here for the cocktails” or “this isn’t the bar is it?” Ms Clipboard had a well practiced line about how the bar was back downstairs and around the staircase. Maybe they should get a sign?

So, at this meeting, in something like order of appearance, we had DJKD, arotulon (that’s me), Mrs D, HelenKitty, SJVC, MS, KM, TF, Paisley Red and our new member DT. Plus the special guest star for the night was J, all the way from Melbourne.

Let’s hear now from the other Barchivists about this night:

DJKD:

I was a bit surprised at how “nightclubby” it was downstairs at 1907. I was expecting something a bit more… well, “1907”-ish, I suppose. But I did enjoy the $10 cocktails on offer. The Loco Apertivo was certainly full of orange craziness, and Mrs D said that the James and the Giant Peach was super strong. Our special guest from Melbourne, J, tried the Miss Muffet, I believe, and I didn’t hear any complaints!

DT:

Was very good, would happily go there again.

 Both the cocktails I had were quite good, but have forgotten their names.  The gin and vodka ones. [one was a Miss Muffet; anyone else remember the name of the first one? - arotulon] The champagne DJKD picked out was also quite enjoyable and I’m not really a big champers drinker.

 I had just a nice buzz worked up to enjoy The Expendables.  Which was great!

Paisley Red:

Finding the bar proved challenging for those of us without a sense of direction. I felt like a tourist in my own town, asking random people for directions! Once we found it we were faced with yet another hurdle – the door girl asked for my surname! I hesitated… “Uh…I don’t think I’m on the list…” I said. Luckily she then pointed out the way to the cocktail bar. Phew!

Once inside we were greeted by a pleasing level of darkness, and of course cheap cocktails. I chose the Loco Apertivo, which proved to be very citrusy and very spirity. Vodka, if I’m not mistaken.

The venue was delightful but there was a disappointing lack of tapas or other snackage.

Mrs D:

I had the James and the Giant Peach – which was slightly peachy but overall tasted like BOOZE. Took my breath away, kinda like having a giant peach roll over you

Then the Moulin rouge which was berry nice.

 The bar was very high, so it was good that there was table service.

arotulon:

There was table service for some of us. When I went to the bar to order my Moulin Rouge I got handed DT’s drink and asked if I could take it to him since he was in my party. He didn’t tip. Later on MS found the hovering waitress who did indeed bring drinks as requested. One of these drinks was the Saffron Sling that DT ordered but he was unable to stay to enjoy it. I regarded that as my tip. It was icy but good.

HelenKitty:

Despite feeling a bit ill, I dragged myself out and enjoyed a Moulin Rouge cocktail and also ran into some other friends having a drink in 1907. Particularly liked the lovely portraits of Marilyn.

MS:

Cocktails were of sufficient length. Two were purchased: a lemony/orange one (can’t remember name?) [I think it was the Loco Apertivo - arotulon] which was delicious and potent, followed by a James and the Giant Peach, which was also delicious and even more potent: the flavour could be tasted, the alcohol could be felt. Both winners at $10 per unit. I am hoping the estate of Roald Dahl remains uninformed so prices won’t rise to accommodate royalties.

As you can see we all loved the drinks but there was an alarming lack of food. We somehow managed to get some nuts and a few olives, despite being told by the hovering waitress that there was no food to be had.

arotulon and HelenKitty and a $10 Saffron Sling

Mrs D, DJKD and Paisley Red with a Loco Apertivo

KM looks on as TF shows how many drinks she is having

MS makes our special guest star J feel welcome

Another thing; perhaps it was the lack of light in this venue but the time just seemed to vanish, rather like the hovering waitress when we wanted more drinks. Anyway, it was after 8 before any of realised and so those Barchivists still in attendance went off to find a source of food.

For some reason in the same week that I had blogged about ducks, the Barchivists were keen to get some ducks of their own.

Paisley Red: 

So off we went in search of Chinese BBQ. When we got to the restaurant, things didn’t look good. Not only was there a queue out the door, there was a distinct lack of window-ducks. We gave up on that dream and then found a Vietnamese restaurant, which miraculously had a table big enough to fit us all. We decided to all order a dish and share. And lo and behold, one of the specials was duck! (Served with some variety of ‘rootlets’ I believe…)Yet again the duck eluded us, as it was all sold out! But we managed to order a veritable smorgasbord of tasty dishes. Overall  it was an excellent outing, I had so very much fun. Thanks Barchivists!

Mrs D: 

We went in search of roast duck – but none was to be had. The Vietnamese was very tasty even without any duck.

MS: 

Dinner was great, despite inability to get table at original choice. Food was of sufficient flavour and substantial quality.

DJKD: 

Dinner was a Vietnamese feast at Viet Hoa. The Chinese BBQ joint MS took us to was too popular and there was a queue waiting for tables, so we went over the road instead. The food was very tasty and really quick, which was good as everyone was starving by that point. We managed to spin the Lazy Susan around until there was virtually nothing left.

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