A buyer with a penchant for mixing Penfolds Grange and Coca-Cola served as inspiration for North Adelaide cocktail and wine bar Fú, the place co-founder Geoffrey Hunt says individuals ought to be capable to “take pleasure in something… so long as it’s scrumptious”.
Former Eleven sommelier Geoffrey Hunt has parted methods with the Sprout Meals Group to open specialty cocktail and wine bar Fú.
“I’ve been desirous to open a wine bar for many of my profession,” says Geoffrey, who’s opening the bar along with his companion, Eva Yu.
“[Eva] and I’ve been speaking about it on and off for a few years and the chance sort of introduced itself not too long ago, and we’d be loopy to not take it.”
Fú Cocktail & Wine Bar has a robust deal with alcoholic drinks paired with gentle, snack-like meals to enhance the drinks – notably not the opposite manner round.
“We’re actually focussed on creating high quality drinks, so we put quite a lot of effort and time into producing our personal elements, primarily, to then translate into the cocktails and the meals that we provide,” Geoffrey says.
The pair lacto-ferments a few of their cocktail elements, because it creates “these actually fascinating, barely funky, barely bitter, barely salty flavours,” Geoffrey says.
These flavours might be discovered within the cocktail Agave Maria and non-alcoholic drink Cola Noir.
Apart from its use of lacto-fermentation, Cola Noir (a mixture of lacto-fermented Pinot Noir grapes and Coke) holds a particular place in Geoffrey’s coronary heart.
He says it’s indicative of Fú’s angle of not taking itself too significantly, and is an ode to Geoffrey’s former function on the prestigious Grange Restaurant.
“We had a daily who would are available as soon as a month or so and he would purchase a bottle of Grange and a jug of Coke after which drink them combined,” he says. “I used to be horrified!”
Whereas this common patron would steadily spend greater than $1,000 on this practice model of a Kalimotxo, Geoffrey realised it wasn’t his place to inform them easy methods to take pleasure in their very costly bottle of wine.
“Since then, I feel I’ve most likely grown a little bit bit in my perspective, and lately I attempt to not be prescriptive with how individuals ought to take pleasure in something actually,” Geoffrey says.
“So, if someone needs to take pleasure in their crimson wine with Coke or white wine with lemonade – or nevertheless they need to have their drink – so long as it’s scrumptious, that’s actually all that I can ask for.”
The notorious Cola Noir
Not all bars are prepared to entertain the person whims of their clientele, however Fú Cocktail & Wine Bar will fortunately create drinks to cater to buyer cravings.
“I discover it actually enjoyable, and a little bit of a problem, but it surely signifies that [patrons] hopefully get precisely what they’re after,” Geoffrey says.
Although booze is Fú’s focus, there’s a snacky meals providing with punchy Asian-western fusion flavours.
“For instance, now we have a hummus dish however then we even have a Peking duck sauce as a part of the pairing,” Eva says.
“Reasonably than utilizing bread or flatbread, we use flaky pancakes, so it simply spices issues up.
“We’re attempting to create a steadiness between what individuals anticipate from a typical bar and with our personal selections.”
The very Flaky Pancake. This image: provided.
Nonetheless, there’s no mistaking the place Eva and Geoffrey’s loyalties lie – the drinks.
“We don’t actually need to take away the main focus [that] that is extra like a venue for individuals to take pleasure in cocktails and wine,” Eva says.
As North Adelaide features in reputation, Geoffrey and Eva are thrilled to be a part of a coming new period for Melbourne Avenue – accompanying the likes of The Retailer and Butter & Toast.
“It’s a very thrilling avenue to be on and I undoubtedly assume there’s room for the world to develop and become one thing fairly particular,” Geoffrey says.
Fú Cocktail & Wine Bar is situated at 129 Melbourne Avenue, North Adelaide, and opens Wednesday to Sunday from 2pm ’til late.
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