Bar Ferdinand Brings Garden Cocktails to Heritage CBD Spot

Throw a Japanese Slipper into conversation at Bar Ferdinand and bar manager Greg Thompson will remind you the cocktail was invented right downstairs. In 1984, on the ground floor of the heritage-listed building at 7 Alfred Place, Jean-Paul Bourguignon created the melon-and-citrus classic for Mietta’s restaurant. Upstairs, inside a 21-seat garden-inspired bar that opened 22 April 2026, the drink has returned in a form that’s cleaner, lighter, and anything but neon green.

Thompson, who developed the bar’s drinks with beverage director Ali Toghani, describes the reimagined Japanese Slipper as a direct nod to the building’s history. “Ours keeps that same melon-and-citrus profile, but in a cleaner, lighter way using a clarified honeydew melon base fortified with melon eau-de-vie, plus yuzu liqueur and a house citrus cordial,” he said. “It’s not neon green, and it’s not trying to be ironic either, it’s just a really good version of a drink with a genuine connection to the site.”

The bar itself, set above the Hunter St. Hospitality steak-frites restaurant 7 Alfred, leans into its botanical location. The 1885 building once housed the German Social Club, a gathering spot for botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, and the bar’s eight cocktail categories read like garden beds: Rose, Fern, Camellia, Eucalypt, Arid, Herb and Medicinal, Oak, and Blackberry. Dried Queen Anne’s Lace spills from the ceiling, native bracken and palms fill corners, and the room’s herringbone floors and burgundy leather carry the warmth of a hidden conservatory.

The drinks are designed to evolve, not just rotate. “A Rose Garden cocktail in a few months’ time will be very different to what it is now,” Thompson said. “Sometimes that means thinking less literally. With Fern Garden you can’t really work from fern as a flavour, so it becomes about capturing the feeling of walking through a fernery: the drop in temperature, the earthiness, the smell of rain.” That framework keeps the menu flexible; a category stays familiar while the actual liquid inside shifts with produce and season.

Food at Bar Ferdinand matches the mood. The compact list is built for sharing: oysters, native-spiced macadamias, anchovies, terrine, a pretzel, a wagyu pot pie, and dark chocolate bark. It reads like a polished picnic hamper unpacked after a long afternoon in the garden, and the tight offering makes sense in a room with only 21 seats.

If you’re settling in for the evening, you can combine the bar with dinner at 7 Alfred directly below. The one-dish steak-frites concept, which opened late 2025, shares the same heritage bones, and moving from a martini under dried flowers to a steak dinner one floor down is a neat use of a single building. Just keep in mind that the Japanese Slipper you’re drinking upstairs won’t match the 1984 original, and the menu isn’t meant to sprawl. Expect tight, evolving choices rather than a phone-book list.

Reservations are wise. With room for only 21 guests, walk-in spots vanish quickly, especially as word spreads. The cocktails themselves come with a built-in clock. Because the garden categories shift with what’s in season, a Camellia cocktail you try in June will likely taste different by spring, making return visits feel less like repetition and more like checking on a growing thing.

Most CBD bars tweak menus by season. Bar Ferdinand’s approach is quieter. Instead of ripping up the list every three months, the garden framework allows small, constant adjustments within categories you already know. That means a Eucalypt cocktail in winter might be herbal and bright, while autumn’s version leans into smoke and spice, but both still live under the same name. It rewards curiosity without demanding a complete reorientation.

Getting there is straightforward: tram routes along Collins and Bourke streets stop within a short walk, and Flinders Street Station sits just down the hill. Once you’re in the neighbourhood, the historic block around Collins Street and its laneway bars invite a wander, but the smart money is on starting at Bar Ferdinand and letting the room’s quiet, floral intensity shape the rest of your night.