Bourbon cocktails with quail eggs, Dom Perignon by the glass and a hi-tech ice making machine outs Jasper’s bar on the map

Bourbon cocktails finished with quail eggs, Dom Perignon by the glass and an ice machine that will change the way you enjoy your next old fashioned— does this bar have the quirkiest drinks list in Melbourne?

Jasper’s owner Jasper Lai and venue manager Blake Hall get creative with the drinks menu. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Jasper Lai has two passions in life, the first being his love for music.

“I grew up listening to jazz, it was always around me and I have a deep appreciation of it as a genre,” the 25-year-old gushes.

“The best thing is that it’s improvised. It gives the artists expression and a voice.”

Jasper’s second love is business. Early in his career he worked in the family’s property company and in various tech-start up roles.

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So when the opportunity came to open his own bar in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, he made sure it had a jazz focus.

The self-named venue Jasper’s quietly opened a few months ago and has already attracted big name acts — Australian jazz musician James Morrison headlined the bar’s opening last month (Sat March 23).

“Being a new bar we wanted to be comfortable in our own skin, set the tone and language of the venue and build rapport with customers before the public knew about it,” he says.

“I dreamt of doing some sort of business, but I had studied music. So I wanted to have an element of that in whatever I did.”

Jasper wants his venue to cater to all walks of life — people after a drink after work, music enthusiasts to the top end of town.

Jasper's cocktail bar opened in Goldie Place in Melbourne’s CBD a few months ago.

This led to Jasper to recruit former Woods of Windsor and The Atlantic’s Blake Hall as a venue manager and to write the drinks list.

The menu is ambitious and has everything from bourbon cocktails finished with quail eggs, top shelf liquors, rare wines by the glass and quality ice machine that will change the way you enjoy your next old fashioned.

“We have about 15 cocktails on a short list but there’s more than 200 we can make,” Blake says.

A coravin, used by bartenders to pour wine without de-corking, makes drinking a 2002 Dom Perignon, 1992 Yalumba Shiraz and 2008 Mount Mary pinot noir by the glass achievable.

Jasper’s drinks menu is also inspired by his travels across Europe and Asia.

“I’m very fortunate to have travelled to many venues in my time,” Jasper says.

“There was this underground cave bar in Italy, that had the best basil infused cocktail I’ve ever had. It was wacky, but evoked something in me,” he says.

Jasper hopes people who visit his new venue fall in love with the space, service and the music.

“We wanted to have this great cocktail bar and live music venue, where everything from your first drink, to the music, service, events and atmosphere was outstanding,” he says.

@kara_irving