# Botanical Cocktail Menus Hunter St Hospitality Launches the Immersive Bar Ferdinand By Kanesa David | Written with AI assistance | Published 2026-04-17 | Lifestyle Source: Trend Hunter, https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/bar-ferdinand References: [thespiritsbusiness](https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2026/04/botany-inspires-melbournes-new-bar-ferdinand/) & [sevenrooms](https://www.sevenrooms.com/explore/barferdinand/reservations/create/search/)  [Hunter St Hospitality](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/hunter-gather-creatine) opened Bar Ferdinand above its steak restaurant 7 Alfred in Melbourne on 22 April, presenting a 21-seat cocktail bar that stages drinks as a walk through a fictional garden, featuring menus tied to plant collections such as [Rose](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/lidl-asti-ros), [Fern](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/fiddlehead) and Herb & Medicinal. Beverage director Ali Toghani and bar manager Greg Thompson created the concept to reference the building’s botanical history and Ferdinand von Mueller. The menu frames each category as a persistent container while individual cocktails evolve with seasonality and produce. Early serves include a Fern cocktail with Cognac, kaolin clay, pu erh tea and petrichor, a Camellia steeped into fino Sherry, and an Oak drink aged via ultrasonic charred oak treatment. Bar Ferdinand also offers two signatures—a House Martini and a reworked Japanese Slipper—plus a compact wine list and picnic-inspired small plates. This format matters because it turns botanical storytelling into a repeatable menu architecture, giving bartenders a durable creative system and consumers a changing, place-based tasting experience. Image Credit: Hunter St Hospitality ## Trend Insights (Trend Hunter) - Score: 3.5/10 - Popularity: 22% | Activity: 11% | Freshness: 72% - Audience gender: 50% men, 50% women - Primary generations: Millennial, Gen X - Top markets: North America, Europe, Asia ## Categories [Trend Hunter](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends) > [Lifestyle](https://www.trendhunter.com/lifestyle) > [Drinking](https://www.trendhunter.com/drinking) ## Key Themes ### Why This Trend Is Growing - **Botanical-driven Cocktail Narratives:** Creates opportunities for brands to extend storytelling into botanically themed product lines and packaged experiences that blur mixology and consumer retail. - **Seasonal Menu Containers:** Positions a repeatable architecture where persistent category frames host rotating, provenance-led recipes that can scale across venues and formats. - **Sensory-driven Bar Experiences:** Enables multisensory staging—aroma, texture and sound—to become distinguishing service features that redefine guest expectations of beverage experiences. ### Industries Being Reshaped - **Hospitality and Nightlife:** This sector can be reshaped by venue concepts that trade one-off novelty for durable, place-based narratives that encourage repeat visitation. - **Beverage and Distilled Spirits:** Distillers and brands may find new product niches through botanical-driven formulations and novel aging or infusion techniques showcased in experiential bars. - **Culinary Tourism:** Local food-and-drink itineraries can pivot toward plant-focused storytelling, turning historic flora and terroir into marketable destination experiences. ## Related on Trend Hunter - [Farming-Inspired Cocktail Menus](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/agriculture-by-little-red-door.md) - [Functional Botanical Beers](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/matcha-botanical-pilsner.md) - [Hyperlocal Cocktail Drinks](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/neighborhood-cocktail-menu.md) - [Art-Led Cocktail Collaborations](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/the-city-of-art.md) - [Neighborhood Cocktail Bars](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/brutes.md) - [Bulk Artisan Cocktail Products](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/the-drinks-bureau-cocktails.md) - [Seasonality Inspired Cocktail Menus](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/savour-the-season-menu.md) - [Botanical Cocktail Bar Openings](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/sipping-tiger.md) - [Luxe NYC Rooftop Bars](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/hb-rooftop.md)