Northern beaches bars have crazy cocktails on the menu

MIXOLOGIST Fraser Hill likes creating drinks with drama and his latest tipple, the Skinny Dipper, is no exception - he says every bar should have one.

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FRASER Hill likes creating crazy drinks with drama. With 10 years’ experience, the mixologist from Freshwater’s Stowaway bar has two new summer tipples.

“I like to do things that are a bit theatrical,” Fraser Hill said.

“Coming up with new drinks makes my job more interesting.”

Cocktail barman Fraser Hill working away at the Stowaway bar.

Skinny Dipper is one of his latest creations. The drink is an old-fashioned style of cocktail. It is made with prebatched Peruvian and Jamaica rum, banana syrup, Australian shiraz and spiced walnut bitters.

The drama comes from the presentation, he said.

“It comes out to the customer smoking, I use a smoking gun and cherry wood chips,” he said.

“Every bartender worth his salt should have a drink like this.”

Stowaway’s smoking cocktail, the Skinny Dipper.

Oh Danny Boy is a champagne dessert cocktail made with raspberry and whiskey sorbet.

Stowaway also has a dessert cocktail. Oh Danny Boy is a champagne cocktail made with crème de violette, lemon juice and a sphere of house made raspberry and Irish whiskey sorbet. It comes with a spoon.

“People don’t know whether to eat it or drink it,’ Mr Hill said.

By comparison, Australian cocktail drinkers are more conventional. Number-crunching from online data team at Yelp has come up with a list of the top five cocktails in Australia. Martini rules, taking out the top spot, followed by margarita, old fashioned, mojito and espresso martini.