A friendly wine bar with Tasmanian-only wines and spirits, Bar Two offers an excellent overview of the best the island has to offer with an inner-city vibe that belies its regional setting.
Co-owner, sommelier and former wine judge Tim Birmingham is a laid-back host – a good listener, deftly matching wine to drinker, and a good storyteller, supplying just enough detail of the quirky characters, weather events and twists of fate that shaped each wine. Behind his bar is a wall of wine currently on the list and top-shelf spirits, also all Tasmanian. This pretty much constitutes the bar’s only form of decoration, along with a couple of framed vintage industrial moulds. This simplicity, Tim’s easy charm and the unglamorous location – half hidden along a nondescript alley – set the scene for unpretentious good times.
There’s seating for just 20 inside at bare timber tables and another eight at a communal outdoor table, so you’re almost guaranteed to mingle with other drinkers – usually a mix of locals and travellers on repeat visits. The volume of the jazz-pop playlist is set for conversation rather than partying, so it's easy to chat with Tim and fellow drinkers. It might be a coincidence, but we’ve shared almost every session at Bar Two with mainland city-dwellers seeking a tree change in northern Tasmania. They look at property by day, and raise a few glasses here at night. Finding the reassuringly familiar vibe of a low-lit inner-city wine bar in Launceston seems to reassure these prospective residents they could survive a move to regional Australia with regular doses of Tasmanian wine.
