Jason Williams

The Climb

Bar work is often learned first through support stations, prep, stock, glassware, ice and service pressure. Jason Williams came through that route as a barback and bartender in Brisbane and Melbourne, building the practical fluency required before a drink reaches the guest: pace, reset, timing, movement and the read of a room under load. Advocacy work widens the frame from execution to category, brand, list and bar culture. In 2015, Williams became Creative Director and head of advocacy at Proof & Company in Singapore, moving from individual service into the way spirits and bars are presented, taught and positioned within a market. Hospitality direction at group level joins beverage with operations, concept and guest experience. At House Made Hospitality, Williams is co-founder, director and beverage director, a set of roles that places drinks inside the full venue system rather than treating them as a standalone program.

Today

Beverage direction in a multi-venue hospitality setting is concept work as much as menu work. Williams is the co-founder, director and beverage director at House Made Hospitality in Sydney, where the task is creating award-winning bars and exceptional drinking experiences, with emphasis on bar and beverage concepts rather than drinks in isolation. A cocktail program can be built through the whole room: glassware, uniforms, music, scent, service gesture and the ritual around the serve. In Williams’ practice, the drink is one component of social experience, and the surrounding part of the same design brief. At Apollonia in Sydney, the Thunderbolt ritual shows that approach in service form. The named ritual makes the serve more than an order-and-deliver transaction; it gives the drink a set moment, cadence and presentation within the room. Brand work sits beside venue work in Widges Gin. “I have my own gin brand, called Widges Gin, and I’m now fortunate enough to have Widges Gin as the official gin of the Singapore Sling, at the home of the Singapore Sling, the Raffles Hotel.” The fact links a named gin, the Singapore Sling and Raffles Hotel in Singapore, placing Williams’ work between product, hotel cocktail tradition and contemporary bar service.

Signature

Jason's signature cocktails include Thunderbolt ritual, Widges Gin, and Singapore Sling. The signatures describe three parts of the same practice. Thunderbolt ritual belongs to service design and the staged moment around a drink. Widges Gin is product authorship. Singapore Sling connects that product work to one of the world’s most recognisable hotel cocktails, with Widges Gin named as the official gin of the Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel in Singapore.

In Their Words “I have my own gin brand, called Widges Gin, and I’m now fortunate enough to have Widges Gin as the official gin of the Singapore Sling, at the home of the Singapore Sling, the Raffles Hotel.” “That’s why we think so much about experience design. Not just the food or beverage direction, but the social experience. Everything from glassware and uniforms to music, scent and ritual.”

Recognition

Jason Williams has received Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards — Best International Brand Ambassador. Jason's honors include World’s Best Spirits Selection, World’s Best Cocktail List, and Best International Cocktail Bar. Those recognitions sit across spirits selection, list-making and bar operation. Williams’ record runs from barback and bartender work in Brisbane and Melbourne to Creative Director and head of advocacy at Proof & Company in Singapore from 2015, and to co-founder, director and beverage director at House Made Hospitality in Sydney. The consistent craft position is that beverage belongs inside a complete hospitality system: the bottle, the list, the serve, the room and the social behaviour it produces.