Punters will walk down a laneway and staircase to discover a basement venue dedicated to rum, tequila and Santana-inspired tunes. Here’s what else to expect.
It started with a Carlos Santana album.
“Well, I was listening to two, actually – exploring his back catalogue,” Peter Hollands says about the iconic Mexico-born musician. “Abraxas and Shaman. Abraxas loosely translates to ‘the original god’. It would be a cool name for a bar, but my mum kept asking, ‘What’s the name again?’ If she can’t remember it …”
“So we went with Shaman instead … Shaman speaks to that particular artist, but it also drives the music direction, it drives the layout, and it drives the drinks.”
Like any bartender worth his weight in egg whites, Hollands has an exacting eye for detail. But he also tends to overflow with ideas – mixed, remixed and finely tuned for different audiences. Bars such as Frog’s Hollow, Alice, and the rebooted Alliance Hotel seem simple on their surface, but sit in each and watch carefully, and you slowly realise the thought that’s gone into them.
It will be the same with Shaman, which is scheduled to open in a moody basement space at 109 Edward Street (the heritage-listed former Metro Arts building) in late July. Beyond the music, Shaman broadly takes its influence from the Caribbean and parts of Latin America that surround the Panamanian isthmus – but in particular Puerto Rico.
“When I worked for Bacardi, I visited the distillery in Puerto Rico,” Hollands says. “And it [the island] has that feeling of a place where anything could happen. There are the green rolling hills, and the dichotomy of these old colonial forts and the new buildings. There’s a rich migrant community there, which helps lend it all these different shades.”
For drinks, Shaman manager Tim Pope – who previously owned and operated Par Bar in Fitzroy with fellow recent Brisbane import Tony Huang – will focus on rum and tequila, backed by just one beer by the bottle and a handful of wines. The back bar will be compiled entirely of rums such as Pyrat XO and Myers’s Original Dark Rum.
“We’re going to try and do the best margarita [made with Patron Silver] and daiquiri in Brisbane,” Pope says. “That’s about balance … a good-quality tequila or rum, and fresh citrus.
“It comes down to how we shake and how long we shake,” Hollands adds. “But also the glassware and preparing that properly – we’ve got a big glass freezer [for that]. It’s about applying that science. I feel [as an industry] we’ve gotten a little bit away from what a drink needs to be. People miss the fact the drink is balanced. Yeah, it looks pretty, but is it tasty?”
There will be one beer and one beer only – Estrella – served by the stubby out of iced crates that will sit on the back bar.
“There’s no cold room, and I can’t do kegs,” Hollands says. “You have that idea of these workers sitting around a table after work, three rounds in. The ice is sparkling, dripping off the bottles. It’s about taking the negatives of the space and turning them into positives.”
As for the space, punters will enter via the old cart laneway, on the left-hand side of the building, before descending the staircase many will associate with Dr Gimlette’s external bathrooms. Instead of turning left for the loo, though, Shaman is straight ahead in a tenancy previously used for functions.
Hollands plans to make the most of the building’s 1890-built brick walls and imposing timber beams. Expect pops of colour, a U-shaped, upholstered bar on one wall and a mirrored feature wall opposite that provides the backdrop for an informal dance floor. There will also be black bentwood furniture.
As for the music, Santana, of course, provides the thematic through line, with plenty of New Orleans brass and blues, say, or chilled old-school reggae.
“That style of music implies a good time, but it’s not meant to be too rowdy,” Hollands says. “It’s a venue designed to take you to your happy place.”
Shaman, 109 Edward Street, will open in late July.
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Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.
