An amazing rooftop location in the heart of the city? Check! Some signature cocktails created using Tanqueray Gin? Check! A vibrant bunch of some of Sydney’s most stylish foodies? Check, check, check! Our Secret Rooftop Party was ticking all the boxes last Wednesday at Sydney’s newest rooftop bar at The Old Clare Hotel.
The rooftop was lit by the luscious green of a Tanqueray bottle, as green lights, green latterns and a giant green sign with “Time To Tanqueray” towered above the guests.
As guests arrived via elevator, they were greeted with a green mask and Ms Darlinghurst, who warmly welcomed everyone as they tried their first cocktails. The rooftop party played a little differently to our usual sit-down dinner, with six delicious Tanqueray cocktails to try, paired with creative canapes made by the acclaimed team at Kensington Street Social.
Each cocktail incorpored the crisp taste of the popular gin in a different and innovative way. The Grapefruit & Chamomile Gimlet blended grapefruit shebert, chamomile cordial and grapefruit oils with Tanqueray No. 10. The Negroni Sbagliato was a crowd-pleaser, with Campari, sweet vermouth to make the bitter bite of the famous cocktail.
People were grabbing their phones to immediately Insta The Corpse Reviver, a deliciously sweet cocktail of blue curacao, Tanqueray, lemon and Fino Sherry. The Smokey G&T was served in an impressive balloon-style glass, that you could barely wrap one hand around. It had a strong, smokey flavour that really blew your socks off! The smokiness was thanks to Islay drops and Fever Tree Tonic.
The Dill and Banana fizz was certainly the most unusual combination of flavours, but turned out to be a real treat with dill, banana essence, lime, soda and a splash of cheeky absinthe. People will be talking about that unusual cocktail for weeks to come. Or some guests just kept it simple and ordered their Tanquerary Martinis as they liked it. Everyone clinked glasses and happily chatted as the first round of canapés started trickling out.
Canapès varying from fresh Sydney rock oysters with green cucmber pickle, squid ink crackers with taramasalta, and braised chicken croquettes with aioli. The most original canapés had to be the beetroot macaroons, with sour cream and chives which was a delightful take on the dessert snackfood. To finish off, we had a liquorice cake, that even haters of that distinct liquorice flavour enjoyed this dessert.
No one ended up in the pool, but the event was certainly swimming with laughs, conversation from new foodie friends made under the stars of a spectacular and (surpringly hot) Autumn night.
Cheers!