Brisbane’s Best-Kept Secrets: 5 Cocktail Bars Worth Hunting Down
The Indulge Divulge Secret Cocktail Trail
Behind hidden doors, down dark laneways, and beneath the city streets, Brisbane has a few secrets up its sleeve.
Just when you think you know the city, you discover an anonymous orange door, a shadowy laneway, or a staircase disappearing underground, and suddenly an entirely different Brisbane waits on the other side.
And naturally, there are cocktails.
I have a particular weakness for places that require a little detective work. Give me an unmarked doorway over a flashing neon sign any day. Half the fun is finding the place; the other half is settling into a dark corner with something fabulous in a glass and feeling rather pleased with yourself for knowing it’s there.
So, in the interests of serious travel research (you’re welcome), I’ve hunted down five of Brisbane’s most intriguing hidden cocktail bars and created a ‘Cocktail Trail’ just for you.
Some are genuinely secretive. Others are hiding in plain sight. All have a story to tell.
START – 4 pm:
Maker – 9 Fish Lane
Secret weapon: Tiny bar, serious cocktails
Maker – Instagram
Maker occupies a compact space at number 9. It isn’t a gimmicky “secret speakeasy”; it’s a small, easily overlooked bar that rewards curious travellers, and local guides continue to single it out as one of Brisbane’s hidden gems.
Recommendation: Maker is tiny, around 20 seats, and its menu changes seasonally – sources specifically recommend asking the bartender to create something to your taste.
Jane’s order: I asked for something herbal, citrusy and dry rather than sweet. Their Margarita-style combination of tequila, pineapple, coriander, jalapeno, lime and Tajin was delish – unusual, savoury, spicy and fresh rather than lolly-like.
And Fish Lane itself gives us another story opportunity: street art, restaurants, tiny bars and all those details you enjoy photographing along the way.
Indulge Divulge verdict: Proof that very good things come in very small bars.
Now walk through South Bank, across the river to Burnett Lane, roughly a pleasant 20-minute stroll rather than a race.
5.00 ish
Death and Taxes Brisbane – 36 Burnett Lane
Secret weapon: 1,000 bottles and 100-year-old floors
You couldn’t really ask for a better address for a secret bar than Burnett Lane. Formed in 1829, it’s Brisbane’s oldest
via Instagram
laneway and was originally the trade entrance servicing what is now Queen Street Mall.
At number 36, enormous wooden doors conceal Death & Taxes, inspired by London and Paris’s underground bars. Inside are intimate lighting, sumptuous booths, a spectacular back bar displaying more than 1,000 bottles, and timber floors around a century old.
This is where you slow the pace; those huge wooden doors are just made for photographs
Jane’s Order: Maxwell Smart – blood orange gin, Amaro Montenegro, tea, rosemary and tonic. The menu describes it as lightly bitter, floral, and refreshing. Again, that combination of orange + amaro + rosemary + tea is much more interesting to me than the sweeter fruit-heavy choices. (I’m having a moment with Amaro – post about this curious ingredient coming shortly)
Interesting fact: Don’t rush down the lane staring at Google Maps. Look around. There’s street art along Burnett Lane, including a wall of lion faces staring towards a Grim Reaper – a suitably theatrical introduction to a bar called Death & Taxes.
Indulge Divulge verdict: Go for the cocktail. Stay because you’ve forgotten there’s a city outside.
NEXT: a 10-minute wander across the CBD to…
Dr Gimlette Brisbane – 109 Edward Street
Secret weapon: A cocktail with a medical history
via Instagram
Now we get glamorous. Heritage brick, Italian leather, a nine-metre marble bar and those fabulous Martini Carts.
This one is less secret doorway and more hidden historical gem, housed in one of Brisbane’s oldest buildings on Edward Street.
There’s a nine-metre marble bar, heritage brickwork, Italian leather booths, brass fittings and a back bar containing more than 800 bottles. And then there are the Martini Carts, which bring the theatre right to your table.
But the best bit is the name.
Jane’s Order: Straight to the Martini Cart – I asked for a very dry, aromatic gin Martini with an interesting savoury garnish. It was more distinctive and vastly less sweet than working through another fruit cocktail. Their whole Martini service is one of the bar’s signatures.
Interesting fact: Dr Gimlette honours Royal Navy surgeon Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette, who is associated with adding lime cordial to sailors’ daily gin ration to help combat scurvy. Gin + lime eventually gave us the Gimlet cocktail. Medicine has rarely sounded quite so appealing.
Indulge Divulge verdict: Doctor’s orders. Probably.
NOW… Don’t go anywhere. Go DOWN!
Shaman – basement, 109 Edward Street
Secret weapon: Go underground, entry via the laneway
Now we’re talking.
via Instagram
Shaman describes itself simply as ‘Cocktails, Cerveza, Santana’ and provides precisely the sort of address that
makes a secret-bar hunter’s heart flutter. Opening in November 2025, it drew its original cocktail concept from the film Cocktail and its famous poem.
Shaman sits beneath Dr Gimlette at the same address, making this a particularly useful little pocket of Brisbane for cocktail reconnaissance. After all, descending beneath familiar Brisbane streets and discovering what’s been hiding underneath your feet makes this little adventure particularly fun. Dr Gimlette upstairs, followed by Shaman downstairs, one address, two completely different cocktail experiences.
Jane’s Order: I asked the bartender: Give me one of your strangest drinks – but dry, ot sweet’. Their bar program deliberately focuses on quality spirits and fresh ingredients, and an excellent ‘Old Fashioned’ landed in my hands, made with Weller Special Reserve. If you like whisky, the Old Fashioned is my pick here.
Indulge Divulge verdict: The Old Fashioned
NOW…abandon walking heroics – you’ve had four cocktails! Uber/Taxi to Fortitude Valley
Grand Coctail Finale: Savile Row – 667 Ann Street
Secret weapon: Find the orange door
No enormous sign. No obvious entrance. Just an orange door. Push through it, slip behind the black curtains, and
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you’ve arrived at Savile Row, a dark, sophisticated cocktail and whisky bar inspired by the history and traditions of London’s famous tailoring street.
And this isn’t just somewhere trading on atmosphere. In 2026, Savile Row was named Best Cocktail Bar in Queensland at the Boothby Best Bars Queensland Awards.
Savile Row doesn’t even open until 6 pm, which is another reason it works beautifully as our finale. Its current cocktail offering is particularly fun because the bar introduced Tailored, a monthly magazine-style cocktail menu – meaning your drink choice can genuinely change with the story when you visit.
Jane’s Order: Again, I gave the bartender something interesting to work with: ‘Something unusual, spirit-forward or citrus/herbal, and definitely not sweet. Surprise me.’ Now I can’t tell you what actually arrived for the name he gave it escapes me – though my fellow ‘take one for the team’ cocktail buddies assure me I enjoyed it!
Interesting fact: Behind that rather modest orange door sits a collection of more than 1,000 bottles. Its cocktail selection also tells stories connected with the street addresses of London’s Savile Row.
Indulge Divulge verdict: Possibly the most rewarding orange door you’ll ever open.
NOTE I strongly suggest sharing/tasting some drinks, eating along the way and drinking water between stops.
Now to a Secret Supper – 7-10 minutes
That’s a sizeable evening! Five cocktail bars. Several mysterious entrances. A few fabulous concoctions. And quite possibly a slightly questionable sense of direction. Surely it’s time for dinner?
But we’re not abandoning our secretive theme just yet. From Savile Row, wander along Ann St towards Alden Street and look for an unmarked black door beside the Lounge Lovers loading dock. This restaurant doesn’t give away its secrets from the street.
The Final Secret: hôntô – 9 Alden St, the Valley
4.4 Contemporary Japanese
Website: Honto
Secret Weapon: Because it continues the intrigue beautifully.
A contemporary Japanese restaurant whose rather unassuming entrance gives very little away about the dining
via Instagram
experience waiting inside.
Step through and discover an atmospheric world of dark interiors, clever lighting and beautifully presented Japanese-inspired dishes designed for sharing.
It’s the sort of place that makes you feel you’ve been let in on a delicious little secret, and after an evening spent hunting down Brisbane’s hidden cocktail haunts, isn’t that exactly how the night should end?
Recommend: Order a selection of savoury dishes to share.
The Verdict:
Five secret cocktails and one secret supper. Brisbane, you’ve been hiding your talents rather well. Perhaps the best thing about Brisbane’s hidden bars isn’t what’s in the glass at all. It’s the hunt. That delicious little moment when you disappear down the stairs or turn into a laneway you’ve walked past a hundred times and think How did I not know this was here?
Because travel, even in your own city, isn’t simply about where you go. It’s about what you notice while you’re there.
Here’s the route:
Maker – Fish Lane
walk 20 mins
Death & Taxes – Burnett Lane
walk 10 mins
Dr Gimlette – 109 Edward Street
walk about 30 seconds
Shaman – basement 109 Edward St
short Uber/Taxi
Saville Row – 667 Ann ST
walk 7 – 10 mins
hôntô
Cheers to looking a little closer! And if you have a favourite, drop it in the comments; we’d love to add it to the list!
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