When it comes to hobbies, some people collect rare coins or historic memorabilia, while other folks choose to dedicate their time to hoarding hard-to-find vinyl records. George Curtis collects amaro, the bittersweet Italian herbal liqueur that, for many, has long been regarded as merely a stomach-settling post-dinner sip. When George arrived in Australia roughly five years ago, the UK expat quickly fostered a love for the unheralded elixir and its broad array of tastes and applications. “I’d never really seen too much amaro in the UK – it was a new thing for me,” George reveals. “I just dived into it. I found it fascinating, how it tasted so different. It was super easy to define the flavours, pick it apart and figure out what I liked. It became a real fascination for me and it sort of became a hobby – I started collecting it.” Though perhaps not as deep a field of exploration as wine or whisky, amaro still offers a rich history and amorphously broad spectrum to explore. Following the amaro rabbit hole takes taste buds past familiar aperitif options like Campari and Aperol to gateway amari like Montenegro and Vecchio Amaro del Capo. From there the flavours diversify, encompassing intensely sweet Averna, alpine-influenced Bràulio and herbacious Cynar before arriving at Fernet Branca and its complex melange of spices. While most of us don’t get to translate our hobbies into a profession, George is making the liqueur a core part of his new bar concept Before + After, a low-key libation spot that officially opened in The City on Wednesday August 31.
Tucked away down an inconspicuous alleyway off George Street, Before + After sits snugly in the semi-subterranean space (formerly home to Bean) at the base of heritage-listed St. Francis House. Head down the grungy alley and you’ll find the portal descending down a short flight of steps to Before + After, where George has instilled a warm rustic black-and-copper aesthetic, furnishing the bar with repurposed finds, a collection of retro amaro posters and plenty of artfully labelled bottles. It’s the kind of purposefully subdued haunt you’d hope to find at the end of an inner-city laneway – a cloistered oasis in the beating heart of Brisbane’s central business district. “I think from the start it’s all about just having somewhere that’s relaxing, welcoming and laid back,” says George of Before + After’s pared-back nature. “It’s a pretty humble bar – everything was furnished through [Facebook] Marketplace, I painted the walls myself. Everything here is just stripped back and designed to be homely. Sink into the couch and have a drink with your mates or come in for a drink before dinner or after dinner.” That aspect of pre- and post-dinner custom is core to not only Before + After’s namesake, but nature. George is positioning his 32-seater bar as a place that’s perfect for an appetite-whetting snack and a whistle-wetting cocktail ahead of a dinner booking, or a digestion aid after a blow-out banquet. That’s not to say that Before + After isn’t the kind of bar you can spend all night at – with a casual-cool vibe and a drinks list worth studious exploration, some folks might find it hard to peel themselves away on time to make their reservation.
Before + After’s drinks list is, as you might have surmised, headlined by a killer collection of amaro. Here George is continuing the work he began at Agnes, where he was part of the lauded restaurant’s pop-up and opening team and one of the chief architects behind the venue’s own impressive amaro selection. The range, which features some ultra-rare labels from George’s own collection, is divided into categories – you’ve got contemporary Italian labels like Staibano Capri and Sangallo Amaro Camatti from Genovese, international variations from Breckenridge Distillery and a whisky amaro from Sweetdram in Scotland, Australian-made amaro from Beechworth Bitters, Osare and Autonomy Distillers, and a treasure-trove-like array of vintage bottles (including a Zucca Rabarbaro and a Bianco Lorenz from the 1940s). “Behind every bottle there’s a different story,” says George of the selection. “Every recipe, especially classic Italian ones like Ramazzotti and Nonino, are passed down through generations of people, going all the way back to the 1800s. Behind every label is a big story, and that’s part of the selling point of amaro – there’s so much to talk about, really.” Amaro filters through part of Before + After’s eight-strong cocktail list, including the Dutch Curry (Mr. Black coffee amaro, imbroglio, curry leaf and pineapple skin), the Wax On, Wax Off (a riff on the negroni featuring Campari, vermouth, beeswax-washed Roku gin and native lavendar) and the Sage Advice (buttered Maker’s Mark, Amaro Averna, burnt sage and banana), but there’s much to enjoy beyond amaro. The back bar is stocked with everything needed to make classic cocktails, interesting wines from Australian makers such as Unico Zelo, LATTA and La Violetta, and craft beers from Balter, Black Hops and Heaps Normal. With help from the team at Alba Bar & Deli, George has assembled Before + After’s own menu of bar food, featuring shrimp rolls with fried garlic and Fernet mayo, grilled cheese with Sizzler bread, lillet-soaked pear and amaro mustard, Olasagasti anchovy toast, fish crudo with vermouth gel, charcuterie and the Not Affogato, which sees Maleny Food Co. vanilla gelato floating in your choice of Amaro Braulio, Amaro Nonino or Mr. Black Coffee Amaro.
Before + After is now open to the public. For operating hours and other important details, head to the Stumble Guide.
