Best bartenders in SEQ: Seven magnificent mixologists named
South East Queensland’s bar scene is rising rapidly in reputation, and it’s in no small part to these seven global award winners, innovators and all-round masters of their craft. SEE THE LIST
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If there is one thing South East Queensland has no shortage of, it is seriously cool spots to pull-up a barstool. But what really makes a venue sing if not the incredible talent shaking and stirring your favourite drinks?
A quick look beneath the surface unveils a bartending scene in South East Queensland that is renowned for skill and innovation.
We’ve rounded up just a few of the region’s hottest bartenders right now, with each of them doing the most to cement the region’s up-and-coming reputation on the hospitality scene.
Aidan Perkins
Milquetoast
Laneway 199, Elizabeth St, Brisbane
Named as one of eight Australian finalists in this year’s Diageo World Class Bartender of the Year, Milquetoast’s Aidan Perkins is one of the hottest bartenders on Brisbane’s late-night scene right now.
Milquetoast itself was awarded Boothby’s Best New Bar of 2025, and this is in no short part due to the wild innovation Perkins brings to the counter.
Perkins has been behind the bar at many of South East Queensland’s most highly regarded drinking dens, including Exhibition Restaurant, Agnes and Honto, before taking the leap into Milquetoast for its opening in 2024.
Some of the creator’s most iconic drinks include the Poker Book, a chilled Irish coffee featuring Amaro Montenegro, Broken Bean coffee liqueur, Marionette apricot brandy, honey cream and bee pollen, which he dedicates to his fiance Brittany; and the recent Good Times, with Johnnie Walker Black Ruby, Queen Garnet plum mead, cacao, clarified raspberry, and toasted barley.
Leah Dunnigan
Savile Row
667 Ann St, Fortitude Valley
She might be the insanely talented bar manager at Savile Row, but Leah Dunnigan has made their mark on the industry for more than just their incredible barmanship.
Dunnigan, who won T25 Australian Bartender of the Year in 2024, has been an outspoken voice of equality in the industry throughout their career, as both a non-binary person in an often male-dominated industry, and as a parent to a young toddler.
Previously in venues across Sydney, Dunnigan made the move north specifically for Saville Row, having fallen in love with it on an earlier visit.
Now, after almost a year in town, they are smashing it, advocating for causes like the Sorry Not Sorry project’s Bar Takeover Tour fighting back against abuse, assault and discrimination in the hospitality industry, all while slinging everything from funky twists on classic cocktails right down to anything featuring their old faithful favourite, whisky.
Georgia Gresham
Before and After Bar
Laneway 181 George Street, Brisbane
Step into Before and After Bar and you’ll discover another glorious venue from the Milquetoast team and another hands-down epic bartender who is breaking all kinds of moulds. While Georgia Gresham may have gained notoriety for creating Maker bar’s signature rye whisky cocktail, or for her time at The Gresham before that, in recent months she’s made the shift over to Before and After.
She’s won countless awards, including this year’s Boothby Drinks 100 Australia Rising Star award, qualified as a 2025 Top 10 Australian finalist in the Jameson Black Barrel Bartender Series (after receiving Rookie of the Year in 20204) and was named one of 2024’s top 25 bartenders in the Epsolon Afterlife to the Bone cocktail competition.
This year she will jet off to Ireland to compete in the Jameson HOSTS Global Summit and battle her way to a place among their Top Three Global Champions, with her Australiana-inspired Jameson cocktail, bringing together cinnamon-myrtle, banana skin-infused whiskey, toasted macadamia and eucalyptus honey, with a sea-salt sprinkled banana sorbet, all served in a macadamia wood-smoked glass.
Millie Tang
Multiple venues
Brisbane
While she may no longer be based in Brisbane, having jetted off to pursue life in Paris, the impact Millie Tang made on the bartending scene in the River City was immense, guiding and raising a generation of empowered and savvy female bartenders.
Tang has been named among the world’s most influential bartenders on seven occasions, named bartender of the year and person of the year by numerous platforms on multiple occasions, as well as a slew of other recognitions that go just a way to highlight her success in her career so far.
During her seven years at The Gresham, and at venues like Press Club and Cloudland before that, Tang partnered with countless big booze names, both in her role as a bartender and as a freelance creative and photographer, working on campaigns for brands like Campari and Johnnie Walker, and judged many a bartending competition to boot.
Loic Mouchelin
Sante Cocktail Bar
14 Duggan St, Toowoomba
Now Toowoomba mightn’t be the first place you’d expect to find a globally recognised and award-winning bartender, but anyone in the local industry knows that Sante Cocktail Bar co-owner Loic Mouchelin will blow every expectation out of the water.
Back in March, Mouchelin was named Australian Vero Bartender of the Year, before heading to Italy to compete in the global comp in April.
He has placed in the Diageo World Class Australia top 100 list on more than one occasion, stunning with epic creations like his recent Ruby Born and Bread, featuring Jonnie Walker Black Ruby, Rhubi Port, his homemade ‘beetter aperitivio’, rosella and oolong tea and topped with a ruby mille-feuille.
Mouchelin and his partner and co-owner Alexandra opened Sante more than five years ago, where it has stood the test of time in an industry that can be fickle, especially in regional areas.
Corby Small
The Gresham
308 Queen St, Brisbane
The Gresham strikes again with another incredibly talented bartender, this time with Corby Small in the role of venue manager.
Small’s almost four-and-a-half-year tenure at The Gresham has seen her rise through the ranks and rake in the accolades, taken under the wing of former-Gresham powerhouse and globally renowned Millie Tang.
She was named a 2023 Rookie of the Year finalist in the Australian Bar Awards and one of Australia’s Top 25 bartenders in the T25 2024 awards
Jack Connor
Rosella’s Bar
1734 Gold Coast Highway, Burleigh Heads
Co-owner and head chef of the boundary-pushing Burleigh Heads venue Rosella’s Bar, Jack Connor is also one hell of a mixologist, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who have traversed the bar’s quirky Australiana cocktail menu.
With almost six years on deck at Rosella’s, Connor has perfected the art of balancing nostalgia and innovation with some of his standout cocktails gaining national recognition.
Connor’s Cyclone slushie cocktail, riffing off the OG icypole of the same name, made form Coastal Moon vodka, imbroglio, quince vermouth, green apple & mint and pineapple & native peach, took out the number four spot in Boothby’s Drink of the Year awards in 2024; while Rosella’s itself won Best Cocktail Bar of the Year.
Originally published as Best bartenders in SEQ: Seven magnificent mixologists named
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