At 4:00 pm on Sunday August 6, the Cuatro Group opened the doors to Antico, its brand-new cocktail bar nestled half-way along Burnett Lane. By 4:30 pm it was full of in-the-know drinkers, all of which had been patiently waiting for word of the watering hole’s opening. It’s to be expected – any new venture from the team behind venerated venues such as Death & Taxes and Dr. Gimlette was going to be big news. While the bar itself is certainly new, for Cuatro’s ownership team – Martin and Wiebke Lange and Belinda and Blake Ward – Antico, or at least its underlying idea, is already more than a decade old. “We’ve been trying to do this for years,” Martin Lange tell us, days before Antico’s opening. “For, like, a decade we’ve been trying to find a place to do something like what we’re doing now.” That something, according to Martin, is a quaint little Italian-style cocktail bar – a joint that pulls right back and focuses on classics in a more intimate space, akin to the small bars that populate Italy’s major cities. Though the vision has been crystal clear for years, the Cuatro crew had yet to find a space that properly lent itself to the concept. That was until Simon Martin of Super Whatnot (and now Flying Colours) fame closed his pioneering small bar in January this year, leaving a perfectly sized gap in the inner-city landscape that could neatly accommodate the Cuatro crew’s long-considered concept. Quickly putting aside plans to spend 2023 in consolidation mode, Martin, Wiebke, Belinda and Blake wasted no time in reaching out to the venue’s owners, negotiating the lease in two weeks and signing on the dotted line by March. “We just couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” says Wiebke. “It was such a great space – I’ve been going [to Super Whatnot] for so many years. People are really excited to see what we’re going to do with it.”

With site in hand, the Cuatro team wasted no time in giving the 45–50-seater a significant makeover. With internal dimensions coming in at roughly 69-sqm across its split-level layout, reconfiguring the site’s original industrial-inspired design would be a tricky endeavour. The first move was to remove Super Whatnot’s island-style bar, opening more floorspace on the entry level that Martin describes as “an Italian hotel lobby, or a hotel bar kind of style”. Ascend up the stairs from Burnett Lane and you’ll be greeted by the attention-grabbing bar along the far wall, wrought from black-and-gold-streaked Brazilian marble and boasting a tiered back bar set against an ornate semi-circle mirror. Underfoot is a black-and-white mosaic made from thousands of tiles handmade in Lebanon, while a glinting chandelier is suspended above. A sunken seating area furnished with two curved black-leather booths sits just next to the entrance stairs, while the mezzanine level up top features a set of marvellously restored bathrooms, stool seating at the railing and two group-friendly tables peering out to the lane. Dimly lit and encased in the building’s exposed-brick walls, entering Antico is like experiencing a warm hug – it’s a place where time stands still, a classic throwback that feels elegantly timeless.

Antico’s sense of old-world charm filters through to its offering, which is considered and deftly delivered, as is to be expected from a Cuatro venue. Where Death & Taxes and Dr. Gimlette filter their respective extensive back-bar selections (Death & Taxes’ range now sits at a sturdy 1100 bottles) into deep tome-like menus, Antico’s smaller rotating range of 220 premium spirits is finely filtered into a tight and tidy cocktail list. “There are signature cocktails – ten of them – but they are very classic oriented,” says Martin. “We’re not going to be doing any over the top, 20-ingredients drinks. They’re very straightforward, with one or two really fresh flavours and focusing on the seasons.” The debut cocktail menu features drinks that boast the silhouette of an established favourite, but with twists that make the most of of-the-moment Queensland produce (right now, it’s blood orange). Early standouts include the Re-Re-Re Fashioned (Woodford Reserve bourbon, Oloroso sherry, Manuka honey and grapefruit bitters), 1 Million Dollars (Pampero anejo rum, sloe gin, RinQuinQuin peach aperitif, fresh passionfruit and citrus), and the Blood and Skye (Talisker whisky, cherry, raspberry vermouth, blood-orange sorbet and citrus). Of course, if you want a simple negroni, you’ll still get a great one – Antico’s is made using specially crafted vermouth and gin, created with local distillers Nosferatu. A tight wine list features a mix of key Italian varietals (think soave, montepulciano and chianti), while Peroni and Stone & Wood Pacific Ale are dispensed off tap. Antico will be the Cuatro Group’s first bar with a food component – soon guests will be able to nibble on fresh bruschetta, or creamy burrata with cured meats. Martin, Wiebke, Belinda and Blake are eager to keep Super Whatnot’s legacy as an energy-filled option for the late-night reveller set – they’ve invested in the venue’s sound system, which will pump out all sorts of tunes, depending on the mood of the night. “When Super Whatnot opened it was almost ahead of its time,” says Martin. “It set the tone for all the small bars that came after, so we want keep a little bit of that respect towards what [Simon] did. We’re gonna have some good tunes and good vibes – basically what he did from the get go.”

Antico is now open to the public seven nights a week. Click over to the Stumble Guide for operating hours.