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!

Let me know what you think by dropping a line in the comments

Need:

• 4 firm Conference or Beurre Bosc pears
• 100 grams castor sugar
• 1 vanilla bean split
• 2 star anise
• I cinnamon quill
• saffron threads, a generous pinch
• unwaxed lemon finely grated zest
• unwaxed lemon, juiced
• clotted cream (or mascarpone) to serve

Do:

• Peel pears leaving stalks intact. Cut a thin slice from the base of each so that the pear sits upright
•  Put the sugar, 1 litre of water, the star anise, cinnamon quill, saffron and lemon zest in a saucepan big enough to hold the pears
• Heat gently until sugar dissolves, then bring to boil
• Add the pears, reduce heat and poach at a gentle simmer for one hour or until tender to the point of a knife
• Remove pears from poaching liquid, lie them flat in a deep dish, that can hold both the pears and syrup
• Return liquid to the boil, bubble for 10 mins or until liquid is reduced and syrupy
• Squeeze over the lemon juice and strain syrup evenly over the pears
• When ready to serve, stand pears upright and spoon over the syrup

Plate:

• Present in an upright cluster on a cake pedestal or Turkish plate (for extra va va voom)
• Plate up and serve with dollops of clotted cream or mascarpone
• Receive accolades with humble panache

(Recipe based on Reza Mahammad’s version from ‘Resz’s Indian Spice’)

[pullquote width=”300″ float=”left”]’Slut’s Spaghetti’, ‘Working Girl’s Pasta’, ‘Prostitute’s Pasta’ – so what’s in a name?[/pullquote]

Puttanesca has a sauce base of capers, olives and tomatoes and is usually served with spaghetti in a dish known as ‘whore-style pasta’. Nigella calls her version ‘Slut’s Spaghetti’, Jamie’s recipe titled ‘Working Girl’s Pasta’. ‘The name ‘Prostitute’s Pasta’ originating from folk-law claiming the savvy Puttanas (prostitute in Italian) made the quick and easy pasta sauce to minimise down time between clients. Others say the robust aromas of the dish were designed to entice clients into the house of ill repute. A less audacious version indicating the sauce was created by a chef who had a volume of guests arrive at his restaurant late one night just as he was about to close and, not having enough of any one ingredient to make a meal for them all, pulled everything from the kitchen together to make this legendary Italian pasta sauce.

My favourite theory? Tongue in cheek, LV Anderson (Prostitutes have nothing to do with it) says Italians use puttana (and related words) almost the way we use shit, as an all-purpose profanity, so pasta alla puttanesca might just have originated with someone saying, “I just threw a bunch of shit from the cupboard into a pan.”

The origins of its name might be debatable but one thing’s for certain – it really does make an easy, quick, cheap and delicious pasta sauce! And seriously, who can resist a dish with such a shady title? Here’s my version. Enjoy!

Need:

• 400 g dried spaghetti (or linguini)
• olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced (avoid using a garlic crusher for finely crushed garlic will burn before absorbing the aromatics)
• 3 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
• 1 small Chorizo sausage, roughly chopped (optional)
• tablespoon tomato puree
• a small handful of salted capers, rinsed and drained; or brine version, drained
• 1-2 fresh red chillies, sliced (seeds in if you like it hot, hot, hot, out if you like it mild)
• a small handful of black and/or green Sicilian olives, de-stoned
• 2 handfuls very ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
• a small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked
• Parmesan cheese, to serve

 Do:

1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then add the spaghetti and cook according to packet instructions.
2. Meanwhile, place a large frying pan over a medium–high heat. Add a good lug of olive oil, followed by the garlic, anchovy, chorizo, capers, chilli and tomato puree. Tear in the olives and stir for 2 minutes, or until the garlic starts to turn golden and the anchovies start melting.
3. Add the cherry tomatoes, a good splash of pasta water and cover with a lid. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the cherry tomatoes start to cook down slightly.
4. Drain the pasta, reserving a cupful of the cooking water.
5. Add the basil to the sauce along with the pasta and a splash of the reserved cooking water, to loosen.
6. Taste and season if needed.

Plate:

• Transfer to a serving platter, piling high in the middle
• top with a good shaving of fresh Parmesan and Basil leaves.
• Reap accolades while thinking to yourself – ‘prostitutes be damned’

Recipe based on Jamie Oliver’s Gennaro’s Spaghetti Alla Puttnesca