Barbara

Despite the rather desolate climate for new openings in the Brisbane bar scene, Barbara is one of those rare specimens that manages to ignore the winter and flourish throughout dire straights. The lovechild of a spread of local Brisbanites seeking their own semi-​private refuge, the new venue, sandwiched between two Cash Converters outlets, has managed to overcome the multitude of obvious hurdles it was faced with and become an instant favourite with the locals.
The biggest selling point of the venue, besides the classy minimalist fitout, has to be their local tap beer, Babs. I swear if they sold this at the closest bottle shop I’d buy nothing else. Aside from their tap beers they also sport a wide range of cocktails and a dedicated wall for shouting your mate a drink. Space can be a bit of an issue, but the space seems to encourage an air of transience, and it’s often a place I can frequent multiple times of an evening.

A group of us descended on Barbara during a bar-​hop for my birthday late last year. A couple of drinks in and seeking somewhere vibey but not too crazy, this was the perfect choice.
A cool, well-​designed bar full of nice people (!) and even nicer drinks, I’ll definitely be back.
Boyfriend claims the bar staff made him the best Old Fashioned he’s ever had, and I sipped a gin concoction that I sure wish I could remember the name of, because it was damn fine indeed.
Barbara took care of us, and she’ll take care of you too.

My new regular I’ve been to once. I have only lived in the Valley for a year but been a dedicated Valley kid for twenty years. It’s the best part of Brisbane but has been frankly a bit shabby of recent times. And not in the delightfully grimy way. In the way that sees some awful people open an awful bar called Viva La Vodka. What the Valley needs is more creative uses of smaller tucked away spaces and less street fronted crap.
Barbara is great for the valley and a really refreshing venue in its own right. Brisbane has an annoying habit of grabbing on to a trend and recreating every new open in the theme for decades and the most recent has been easily one of the absolute worst. It’s this obsession with designing bars and restaurants in a kind of ‘whacky’ style that ends up silly frankly. And with the godawful A&C, Doughnut Time and a handful of others, the Valley has become ground zero for it.
The first thing you notice about Barbara is the pared back aesthetic. Walls and the bar are all treated with black and white tiling and surfaces are a beautiful minimally stained wood. It’s all angles and smooth layered horizontal surfaces. It is calming, smooth and chic, it’s comfortable and it’s designed.
The music is hip hop, but more a Tribe Called Quest than Eminem. There’s something very grown up about Barbara. It’s not weighed down with irony or full of people getting seen. There are no drinks in bowls, no spa (I’m not kidding), no actually not-​that-​funny theming. It’s an adult bar for adults and it’s wonderful.
Behind it are some very recognisable Valley stalwarts. The owners of the Outpost and Phase 4 Records DJ together each Tuesday night as they did at Ric’s many years ago. The place has buzz and it has it for the right reasons.
Run, don’t walk.