Bartending isn’t a career you typically plan for at school—it’s something you fall into, discover, and grow passion for along the way.
For Charlie Coates, it all clicked the moment he started exploring Perth’s bars, drawn in by the personality, creativity, and energy behind each one.
From his early days at Songbird and Neon Palms to honing his craft in Sydney, Charlie has returned home to head up the bar programme at Nextdoor, bringing a produce-driven, inventive approach and a drive to push Perth’s cocktail scene forward.
We caught up with Charlie to unpack the journey that’s brought him to where he is today and explore the mentors, influences, and cocktails that have cemented him as one of Perth’s must-watch young bartenders.
Where did your passion for drinks come from, and when did you decide to make it your career?
Bartending is a funny one—you don’t grow up at school being told it’s a viable career option. To become a chef, you can learn to cook in high school and then get an apprenticeship, but no teachers are encouraging 16 or 17 year-olds to start making cocktails. It’s something that you just fall into rather than plan.
For me, it clicked as soon as I was old enough to drink. I remember turning 18, going to a nightclub, and thinking instantly that this is awful. Not long after, I started going to places like Mechanics Institute and Foxtrot Unicorn, and suddenly it made sense. Those bars had character—each with its own personality, its own drinks, its own vibe. Walking into each one felt like stepping into a completely different world, and I was fascinated.
Take us back to the beginning—where did you first start bartending?
My first job in hospitality was at Songbird at The Ritz-Carlton. I applied with no experience and somehow got the job. It was more bar backing—everything from restocking to polishing glasses and changing kegs—basically everything but serving a customer. I was there for a year and a half, and I knew every wine on the list, I knew every spirit on the back bar—I just wanted to make a drink.
Hayden Carter—the beverage director at Songbird—left to open Neon Palms and asked if I wanted to come on board. That was my first job talking to guests, making cocktails. I’d watch Hayden make a cocktail that was perfectly balanced, and then I’d make the same one, and it would taste awful. That’s when curiosity really kicked in.
Hayden then opened Volare, where I worked with Sam Cocks (now bar director Sydney’s acclaimed Saint Peter) and that’s when my curiosity in cocktails took another leap.
Sam taught me you don’t just have to use products you buy in, you can make them yourself. Instead of passion fruit syrup, you can use the passion fruit itself, even the husk, and create something new. So Sam was the one who really showed me there’s a whole other world of bartending. I stayed at Volare for about a year, then moved to Sydney with Sam.
What did you learn from the Sydney bar scene, and what’s the biggest takeaway you’ve brought back to Perth?
The biggest takeaway from Sydney is how bold and unapologetic it is. Every bar, and every bartender has this desire to be unique and to be better than the bar down the street. Working in that environment rubs off on you, and you get in the mindset of constantly wanting to better yourself.
Over there, a new bar would open doing something really cool, then the next week, another underground spot would open, trying to one-up it. That constant drive shaped the way I think about bartending, and now that I’m back in Perth, I see it as an opportunity to take that same energy and slowly push the bar scene here and see how far we can take things.
What drew you back to Perth after your time in Sydney? How do the two cities compare from a bartender’s perspective?
Sydney has a huge multicultural population and so many travellers passing through, which means bars can get away with more unique, niche offerings. Perth isn’t quite at that stage yet, but it’s definitely heading in the right direction.
What drew me back was Nextdoor. They were looking for a produce-driven, seasonal, ever-changing bar program—which was music to my ears. It made me realise that maybe I can move home, live in a more affordable city, be close to family, and still pursue the style of bartending I discovered in Sydney.
You took a break to try a trade before coming back to bartending—what made you step away, and what brought you back?
I think with any job that you’re in, you eventually question if this is the “right thing” and if you’re 100% committed. Having left school and going straight into hospitality, I had this itch that I wanted to scratch, so when the opportunity arose last year to try a trade, I thought screw it, let’s give it a shot.
It took me two months to realise that I absolutely hated it. I did everything in my power to get back to Nextdoor again, and thankfully, the team was keen to get me back on board. Looking back, though, I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to try something else because it confirmed for me that this is my passion. I love serving people, I love the creativity, and this is where I’m supposed to be.
Do you think there’s a stigma around making a career in hospitality that is off-putting?
Definitely. It’s especially hard when you’ve gone to a private school to leave and say ‘no I don’t want to go to uni, I want to work in a bar’.
In Europe, and even on the East Coast, hospitality is promoted as a career where people really push themselves and strive for excellence. Here in WA, the mindset is quite different, which is a shame. The possibilities within hospitality aren’t really advertised or celebrated enough.
What challenges do you think young bartenders face today, and how do you navigate those in your own career?
It’s very easy to get caught up in day to day operations, but if you choose this as a career, you have to map your journey and look at the bigger picture. Nothing will simply fall into your lap—you need to know what you want from the industry and how best to get it.
It’s also a hard industry because there aren’t many people willing to properly guide you. Plenty will give you work, but real learning is on you. You have to treat every person around you as an asset and take responsibility for your own development. The onus isn’t on anyone else to teach you—you’ve got to create your own curriculum.
Is there someone you’d credit with helping you find your style or key people who have shaped your career?
Sam Cocks and Matt Wiley (Re, Sydney) were the two most influential people in shaping me as a bartender.
Sam was the one who dragged me over to Sydney and got me a job at Re. We were also living together, so I was constantly learning—he’s always willing to share, and I picked up so much knowledge throughout that time. I was initially worried that working and living together would be too much, but it turned out to be the best year.
Matt Wiley was also key. His bartending style is very modern and pushes boundaries. He digs a little bit deeper and uses ingredients you wouldn’t normally think of, and changes the way you think about what can go in a cocktail.
I remember a menu he created that focused on the ten most wasted ingredients in the world. For each ingredient, the challenge was to create ten cocktail ingredients from that one product. Seeing him transform something like rice into ten different, delicious cocktail elements really opened my eyes.
The Blood and Bone cocktail at Nextdoor has caught everyone’s eye. Using meat in drinks is unusual, have you ever worked with meat in cocktails before?
Not really—the cocktail is more about the bone and the fat than the meat itself. Wagyu fat has been used a lot in bars before, usually in a wagyu fat old-fashioned, which imparts a bit more texture and depth.
Burnt bones were the first thing I distilled at Nextdoor. I really wanted to show the chefs just how cool the capabilities of the equipment I had were. And it turned out really well. It gives a slightly alternative peat, almost like a young peated whiskey. From there, the rest of the cocktail basically built itself.
Surprisingly, people are intrigued by it. I thought it might be off-putting to some people, but the way it drinks really isn’t too alarming—quite like a sweetened old-fashioned. It’s become the drink that ties the restaurant to the butcher shop—definitely a staple at Nextdoor.
Can you walk us through your favourite cocktail on the menu right now and what makes it special?
It’s a new one that’s heavily inspired by Matt Wiley called The Potato Head. He made a drink at Re using juiced potatoes. When juiced, and then shaken, it creates a texture very similar to egg white, but with a whole lot more savouriness and creaminess.
The cocktail is then a blend of our chocolate factory distillate, which includes every chocolate element you can imagine—husks, nibs,cacao, white cacao, milk chocolate, dark chocolate—along with Koji coffee liqueur, caramelised honey and then the potato juice as well. It drinks a little like a savoury espresso martini and settles like a Guinness does.
It’s definitely on the weird side, but it’s one that people should try.
And are there any local WA spirits or ingredients that you’re currently obsessed with or love showcasing?
We’ve recently started working more closely with Damaged Goods, who are based in the Swan Valley. Tim, the founder, also used to work with Matt Wiley. We’re flying through their Final Squeeze Citrus Gin—it’s very versatile and stands up in a martini or a cocktail. It’s a great base spirit to use because it’s so citrus-driven.
And you’re also working alongside some pretty impressive young talent. How do you and your team playoff each other?
I am very happy with our team at the moment. We’ve got Jacob (previously Long Chim and Sneaky Tony’s) and Sean (previously Madalena’s and Re) behind the bar.
As a team, communication is what lets us keep building. We’re constantly bouncing ideas off each other and figuring out how to create experiences, rather than taking a ‘this is my cocktail, don’t touch it’ approach. There are no egos—we all see the vision of taking Nextdoor’s bar offering where we want it to go.
What excites you about Perth’s current cocktail culture? Are there any trends that you’re really passionate about at the moment? And what are your hopes for this?
I’m sure anyone living in Perth has heard the saying that we’re always five to ten years behind the East Coast. And while that’s true to an extent, I think we’re at a stage where East Coast influences are starting to reach Perth faster. You see restaurants like Gibney popping up, with service and style comparable to what you’d find in Sydney or Melbourne. Cool things are happening more frequently, and it feels like the scene is really starting to move.
As for my hopes, I’d love to see more of a cocktail hub here—something like Peel or Leigh Street in Adelaide or Clarence Street in Sydney, where you can hop from bar to bar. That’s still something Perth is lacking, though Fremantle has it to an extent. I think it’s all about collaboration, and that’s where the scene can really grow.
Want to hear more from the team at Nextdoor? Discover Head Chef Elliot Sawiris’ favourite spots to eat and drink in Perth here.