Page 26 - Gin Journal - The Hobart Edition

When Vernon Chalker passed away on May 5, all of Australia – but particularly Melbourne – lost one of the brightest sparks in the bar scene. A visionary for what hospitality should be, Vernon packed plenty of life into his 55 brief years, from bringing gin to the masses to introducing table service to bars. His influence was felt around the world, with even The New York Times assigning him the accolade of being “the man who taught Australia how to mix a proper drink”.
Any gin lover worth their salt will know Vernon best for creating the Gin Palace (10 Russell Place), a Melbourne institution. Such is the magnitude of the man’s influence on the bar scene that Ben Luzz, Managing Director at the Gin Palace, and Vernon’s loyal following of liquor aficionados are lobbying for Russell Place to be renamed Chalker Place.
CREATING SOMETHING FROM
NOTHING
“Vernon and the Gin Palace were the true start of the gin scene in Australia,” says Ben. “And
24 it began more than a
decade and a half before there even was a ‘scene’. When the Gin Palace opened there were only five or six gins on the back bar, and there were definitely no Australian gins.”
In any other bar, Ben says, you’d be lucky to find a bottle of Beefeater or Vickers. “It was looked at as a grandma’s drink.”
What Vernon
and the Gin
Palace built was
a forerunner
to the diverse
gin scene we
see today, and
he personally
helped pave
the way for Australian
distillers to
come into their
own. Make
no mistake:
without Vernon
Chalker, the Australian gin community would be eons behind where it is right now.
A PEOPLE PERSON
Ben recalls Vernon spending many a night talking for hours with the bar-back or the cleaner, some couple from the country who’d made their way into the Gin Palace,
or some solo skateboarder drinking a martini and eating toasted sandwiches at 3am.
“He’d be as engaged with them as he was with some of
Australia’s
biggest celebrities, like Barry Humphries. He had the
1951 MARTINI
10mL Cointreau
90mL gin (your choice) 15mL dry vermouth Anchovy-stuffed olive
same passion no matter who he was speaking to. And that was one of the clearest memories I have of those early days: I was always thinking to myself, ‘Wow, this is a world-renowned business owner who is happy just spending time with people.’”
It was Vernon’s passion for discourse and simply spending time with people