The Best Bars On The Sunshine Coast Might Not Actually Be Bars!
If you’re tired of going to the same old spots, ordering the same old drinks, and sitting in the same familiar places, there is an entirely different landscape waiting to be explored.
Some of the most interesting places to drink on the Sunshine Coast are not traditional bars, they offer the experience that some bars have forgotten to deliver.
Think outside the box. Instead of going somewhere that simply resells products made somewhere else, go and find the places that actually create what you’re drinking. Find the places that give the region its character.
There is something very engaging about sitting inside a dual-purpose space where production and hospitality meet. You’re not just consuming a product — you’re sitting among the scent of citrus peel, botanicals, grain, oak and hops. You’re surrounded by the copper stills, tanks, pipes and equipment that made the drink your enjoying.
You might start to feel like your part of the story!
Here are a few places worth discovering:
1.For something very small, very local and hidden right in the centre of Maroochydore try – The Law! Don’t be scared of the formidable name.
Hidden down a driveway in central Maroochydore, just a 3min walk from Ocean Street, this is probably one of the smallest distillery experiences on the Coast or maybe anywhere. But The Law make a surprisingly large range of spirits. Rather than walking into a large commercial venue, you step into a small shed, full of whisky barrels and stainless tanks where the still is only metres away from where you sit. Conversations are usually with the person actually making the product rather than a professional bar tender. It feels like accidentally discovering something you weren’t meant to find. But this is a great little bar with the best G&T in town.
2. For a destination distillery experience:
Sunshine &Son
A small tasting room in a massive production space, this has become one of the larger distillery experiences on the Coast. The setting around the old Big Pineapple precinct is quite rural and gives visitors the feeling of industrial farm yard. It obviously doesnt have the same country feel as say Malaney but its pretty cool with open molasses containers and equipment everywhere. Tours, production areas and open spaces make it feel like a destination rather than a quick stop.
3. For a relaxed brewery experience with a local social feel:
Ten Toes Brewery (Sugar Road)
This feels more like arriving at a gathering than a bar but, isnt that the best feeling? There are a wide range of beers and enough special releases to keep things permanently interesting. The warehouse atmosphere is casual and open, with communal tables that seem designed to make conversations happen naturally. People generally don’t rush through this place.
4. For somewhere with energy and community:
Your Mates Brewing Co.
Bigger and more energetic, but still with a strong production-space feel. Because it is in an industrial space a bit further from an entertaimment area it has a very local worker feel and leans even harder into the industrial atmosphere. There is always purposeful movement, noise and energy around the venue.
Break the mould. Start looking for bars within production facilities, there is a new world waiting.
