The best bars to listen to vinyl in Brisbane

Brisbane was a little late to the vinyl bar party compared to the southern capitals, but over the last 18 months a number of places have sprung up around the city where you can drink and eat whilst listening to a record or three – be they bars, restaurants or something in between.

The trend has its roots in Japanese jazz kissatens (tea or coffee shops), which emerged post-war as places for music fans to gather and listen to the latest imported records. They remain popular in that country.

The Australian version is perhaps a little louder and boozier at times, but the basic concept remains the same: tag along with some fellow music nerds and open your ears to a bunch of songs you may have never heard before.

Here are four places in Brisbane to check out.

Ruby, my dear

Arguably no other venue has done more to boost Brisbane’s vinyl listening scene than Ruby, My Dear.

This stylish and moody Japanese-inspired bar and restaurant opened in Newstead in April last year and immediately began attracting customers from neighboring apartment blocks.

Owned by Bonnie Warner and Tom Sanceau (who are best known for CBD-based burger joint Red Hook, its Portside sister spot Dumbo, and the currently on ice Coppa Spuntino), Ruby, My Dear boasts a collection of 1,200 vinyl records played on four Pitt & Giblin Speakers, hand-built in Tasmania and decorated in wood and bronze.

The food is a selection of Japanese-inspired snacks, served raw, fried or hibachi – think wagyu tataki, eggplant katsu sandos and grilled Hokkaido scallops – plus some larger dishes designed for sharing.

DJs play from Wednesday to Sunday, with details released weekly on Ruby, My Dear Instagram.

Stan’s Salon

Earlier this month, Howard Smith Wharves Cantonese restaurant Stanley transformed its upstairs dining room into Stan’s Lounge, a Hong Kong-inspired musical haven meant to keep the party going well into the night.

Featured is a DJ booth and vintage JBL sound system, with a 1,000-record vinyl collection curated by the Wharves’ musical director Dan McCarthy (perhaps better known by his DJ name Dan Mumbles) and chef and partner Stanley Louis Tikaram. You can expect lots of soul and funk, with DJs playing most nights of the week.

For drinks, there’s a cocktail list that features modern interpretations of Cantonese-influenced classics, with a unique martini menu.

There are also large collections of whiskey and agave, and rare and precious bottles of spirits from around the world, some dating back to the 1960s.

For food, Tikaram created a snack menu in tune with the Cantonese food served at Stanley, on the ground floor. Dishes include fried golden shrimp toast with sesame and truffle mayonnaise, fried pork and shrimp dumplings with fermented chili and white soy, and tropical cray san choy bao painted with water chestnuts and coriander.

The interiors take inspiration from old-world Hong Kong, with the bar decorated in rich jewel tones with lots of wooden details, antique mirrored wall panels and velvet curtains, stools and seats.

SIDE B

B-SIDE made two new vinyl bars at Howard Smith Wharves in just a few weeks.

Located above the stairs in Yoko, B-SIDE is a formalization of the semi-regular beat, food and drink parties upstairs at the two-story izakaya, which had their roots in Apollo Group co-owner Jonathan Barthelmess’s bar crawling experiences. Japanese vinyl artists when opening The Apollo in Tokyo in 2016.

B-SIDE follows the same format, where a chef works behind the bar alongside a bartender and a DJ.

The food is a selection of small plates such as freshly sliced ​​sashimi, kizami wasabi octopus, tuna tataki, Wagyu katsu sliders and shrimp rolls. Larger dishes include two different ramen bowls.

The drinks menu was written by award-winning Sydney bartender Matt Whiley and features a small menu of highballs, a B-SIDE slushie and a selection of matcha lattes, with drinks from the Yoko menu also available.

Barthelmess has also expanded the bar’s vinyl collection, which now boasts around 500 records, with DJs bringing their own records seven nights a week, with a retro night on Mondays.

The arrangement is a slight update to the upstairs dining area: the cork flooring, posters, and Japanese-inspired light wood are all present and correct, as is the mirror ball.

Flying colors

It’s not a vinyl bar specifically, but the musical credentials of Simon Martin’s West End warehouse are largely intact: on the wall hangs an exxy Pitt & Giblin sound system similar to Ruby, My Dear, and the bar has 300 records in hands, with DJs bringing their own to spin Friday through Sunday (with occasional midweek guests).

For drinks, Flying Colors has a tight 50-bottle wine list that favors low intervention and natural drops that are relatively easy on the wallet, with a white and a house red produced by NSW’s Jilly Wine Co.

There’s also a cocktail list offering signature and classic drinks, plus Yulli’s, Aether, Range and Diablo craft beers on tap.

Food lines up a selection of small plates (you can order a beef carpaccio with bonito flakes and pickled enoki mushrooms or fried squid with chilli and caper aioli) alongside the hand-stretched pizza menu.

Flying Colors itself is an outdoor event, with a shaded courtyard in front of us, dimly lit booths, and an indoor lounge.