It’s a bar, Jim, but not as we know it.
Forget everything you’d expect in a normal bar. The wall of liquor bottles, tastefully backlit. The label-driven drinks. The themed decoration. Aboard Board doesn’t do any of it. You’ve heard of a one-man band? This is (almost) a one-man bar. Hayden Scott Lambert, an award-winning mixologist who honed his trade at Melbourne’s tiny Bar Americano (which very sadly closed in December, 2022), is the creator of this 16-seat Collingwood charmer.
In the great tradition of hidden Melbourne bars, it’s tricky to find. There are two ways to reach it; both require sleuthing skills. Easiest is to walk into Beermash, the beer bar on Smith Street, head to the back of the space and push open the unmarked door. Otherwise, those in the know approach from the graffiti-bright Chopper Lane (off Perry Street) and slip inside the door at the end of the alley. This is the ‘official’ entrance. Both heighten the thrill of discovery.
At the top of the stairs, a softly lit space, minimalist in the extreme. A handsome slab of black American walnut, essentially a 12-seat bar, with two leather love-seats behind, a couple of vases, some abstract photography on one wall facing a smoky mirror on the other. Not a bottle or label in sight. Lambert runs this unorthodox cocktail haunt. He makes every drink, for every drinker. The lack of branding is a deliberate choice, he says. “It makes our mixology pure. It’s just about making really nice drinks. I’m using things that taste good.”
Above Board is one of Melbourne’s friendliest drinking dens. Staff are easy, warm and hospitable. Expect authentic chats with them and perhaps also your fellow drinkers. It’s a house party, all welcome.
The bar’s soundtrack is soulful tunes on the stereo mixed with the clink of ice in glasses, the castanet vibes of cocktail shakers, the lively clip of neighbours’ conversations. All in a windowless room with a white trussed roof and soft lighting. As bars go, it’s quite a departure from the norm.
There are precisely 23 cocktails on offer. A dozen classics and 11 house creations you won’t find elsewhere. No beer. No wine. Just cocktails. The house standard is the HSL (Hayden Scott Lambert) Special, a bold and beautiful concoction of blackberry liqueur Amaro Montenegro and absinthe, the sweetness of the cassis cut with lime juice. With a plump blackberry on top, it looks as great as it tastes. Or consider The Proposition, a Negroni-inspired mix of tequila, dry vermouth and Gran Classico, a Swiss bitters of gentian and wormwood.
The other hero is the Empire Strikes Bax, a cold-drip coffee base layered with sweet vermouth, Campari and Amaro, served frothy from the shaker and garnished with sugar-dusted lemon zest.
Other menu exclusives to look out for: the P&G, an adult blend of Pennyweight Fino sherry with elderflower, lemon juice and orange bitters, and the Corrective Cup, a zesty tonic of tequila, apple, a bitter amaro and lemon juice.
Above Board also does the classics extremely well, usually with a clever twist. Case in point: a classic Martini of London dry gin and a suggestion of dry vermouth comes to life with a burst of orange bitters. This being Melbourne, the bar also does a mean Japanese Slipper, the Midori-based melon cocktail proudly invented in Melbourne.
