George Curtis – owner of Brisbane laneway cocktail bar, Before + After – joins us for a Q&A.
Feature image credit: Daniel Joseph.
George Curtis has navigated a hospitality career that began by pulling pints in quaint British pubs and ascended all the way to the prestigious role of opening Bar Manager at Agnes – recently crowned as Australia’s #1 Restaurant by Gourmet Traveller. Now owning and operating the amaro-centric Brisbane laneway bar, Before + After, George joins us for a short interview.
Can you share the pivotal moments in your 13-year hospitality career that led you from pulling pints in British pubs to becoming the opening Bar Manager at Agnes?
I came to realise that there was more to life than treading water in rural towns in the UK which ultimately afforded me no progression. I could have moved to a major city and pursued opportunities there, but I’d already lived in and around London for four years and I was totally over the big city life. The penny dropped when my relationship at the time ended and the opportunity to do whatever I wanted, wherever I wanted presented itself, so I ended up moving to New Zealand, where I had the best 12 months of my life, before deciding to get serious and move to Australia to work towards my own venture. I’d tried hard to make a breakthrough in cocktail bartending back home but it wasn’t happening, so a change of scenery was needed and it ended up being the best decision I’ve ever made.
Shortly after moving to Australia, I realised that the standards here were much higher than I’d experienced before. It was a bit of a baptism of fire but me being me, I applied myself to the best of my ability, made an impression and was offered the opening Bar Manager role at Agnes – which was a great honour and ultimately paved the way for me to open my own venue.
How did your experiences in different establishments shape your approach to managing and operating a bar?
Learning is key and to learn you need a large degree of humility. When I arrived in Australia, I thought I knew more than I did and I was quickly brought back down to earth. From very early on here, I listened to everything everyone had to say and decided what was useful and what was not – whether it was my boss, my boss’s boss or somebody lower in the chain than me. There is always something to learn.
I also paid attention to how people reacted to different management styles and I made the very easy decision to be the type of manager who made people feel valued and respected but also knew what was expected of them.
In one particular interview I had in my first month in Brisbane, the manager spent the entire time telling me all about how many people he’d fired, how important he was and how I’d be fired too if I didn’t pull my weight. As I walked out of the interview I said to myself ‘that is the last person on earth I want to be’ and from then on, I’ve always strived to make my staff feel valued and supported in everything they do, whilst naturally setting a very high standard.
Opening a successful venue involves various challenges – what were some of the hurdles you faced that you weren’t expecting and how did you overcome them?
Opening a venue is one thing but opening a venue with no signage, down a groovy laneway, in a basement and that specialises in amaro is something entirely different! I’m extremely proud and happy of where we sit but the challenge has always been and will always be getting bodies in the venue. I know that once people are inside, they will have a brilliant experience. The feedback, reviews and accolades speak for that.
Aside from a break-in and the odd unpleasantry in the laneway (the less said, the better!), it’s been a really enjoyable 15 months and I’m very grateful to say I haven’t faced any hardships that have truly rocked me.
That being said, I fully expect that to happen at some stage and I’m at peace with dealing with issues that are totally out of my control.
Your collaboration with Full Circle Spirits resulted in the release of your own Fernet. Can you tell us about the creative process behind this collaboration and the significance of Fernet in your bar’s identity?
Fernet is such a polarising category of amaro but it’s very easy to identify the two sides of the spectrum; if you’re hospo, you love it and if you’re not, you hate it. Therefore, we wanted to create a Fernet that brought people together in enjoying Fernet. We didn’t want to create something that was bracingly bitter and herbal, because we already have brands like Branca and Noveis to fill that market. We wanted something you can sip on, as with all other amaro, and something you could mix with soda or tonic and use in cocktails.
I feel honoured to have met Rose [Rose Kentish is the Co-Founder and Head Distiller of Full Circle Spirits] – and the Full Circle team, let alone work alongside them, and to see what Rose has done with her range of spirits is mind-blowing to me, so I fully entrusted her to pull this off.
We talked about mango being a base fruit as they grow in abundance in Queensland, but they’re notoriously difficult to distill. All the pulp and sinew gets clogged up in the still and it’s an absolute nightmare to clean down. In the end, we settled on cumquats, firstly for their great flavour but also practicality and cost. Saffron is the other big player, along with a host of bittering agents such as orris root and gentian, before the liqueur spends a month in Muscat barrels to round out the rough edges. I believe Rose went through 27 trials before landing on the final product.
The plan is to release a second edition that has spent a year in the same barrels. It’s very exciting to think about where that can go. Ultimately, I want to keep rolling with limited editions like this because an amaro bar without their own amaro should be a crime!
Being nominated for Best New Bar in Australia is a notable achievement – what aspects of Before and After do you think contributed to this recognition, and how do you plan to build on this success?
There’s a great sense of community within the hospitality industry in Brisbane, particularly in the city. There are some wonderful venues that have popped up in the last four or five years and getting to know the owners, operators and staff of these venues has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of opening Before and After. It’s also crucial to nominations like this, as they are largely based on your popularity in the industry. Support is reciprocal and I’m very grateful for the guys at Frogs Hollow Saloon, Death & Taxes, Alba and many other venues for giving us the time of day.
I like to think I’ve given a lot back to them too and I have no doubt these friendships and relationships continue for as long as the bar’s around. I also like to think they genuinely love the bar too but you’d have to ask them.
