Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Freddy Andreasson is a 6'4" Swede from the small town of Falkenburg who grew up working a conveyor belt at the Falcon Brewery, spent his late teens dealing weed, and bought a one-way ticket to Melbourne with the proceeds.
He arrived in Melbourne with nowhere to stay and a litre of Jim Beam in his bag. That journey through Australian kitchens and coffee machines, via a period of real personal darkness in Guadalajara, eventually led him to co-found El Gallo Altanero in 2017: a bar dedicated entirely to independent agave spirits from Jalisco, with a menu that changed every week.
Eight years in, the bar the bar has been featured on global 50 Best list, and Freddy has just been named the 2026 Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award winner — the only peer-voted accolade in the programme.
On the episode we talk about what it actually takes to earn the trust of Mexican tequila producers as an outsider, why terroir means more in agave than almost anywhere else in the spirits world, and what happened when the 50 Best spotlight hit a bar that was never designed to be a destination.
We also get into the new bar — Fandango, a classics-only concept two years in the making, built around a simple question: what do you actually want to drink? — plus the politics of mezcal DOCs, raicilla, why the most romantic bars in the world are often the most stubborn, and a dream distillery project coming soon.
With thanks to our sponsors:
🍋🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves
🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye and absolutely no additives.
🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15
00:00:00 - Welcome to the building site
00:02:24 - From sex shop to cocktail bar: the building's history
00:03:42 - Growing up in Sweden: the factory, the brewery, the escape plan
00:05:33 - Buying a one-way ticket to Melbourne with drug money
00:08:08 - Solo travel, barflies, and finding yourself broke in a kitchen
00:11:16 - Teaching himself coffee and getting on the machine
00:27:48 - How tequila changed everything
00:29:52 - Arriving in Mexico: the café, sleeping on the floor, rock bottom
00:33:12 - Sobriety, sun salutations, and taking control
00:34:23 - Closing the café, opening the bar
00:37:15 - Falling into agave: visiting distilleries and getting obsessed
00:42:35 - The bar's philosophy: independent spirits from Jalisco only
00:44:07 - The rotating menu: weekly to every two months
00:45:48 - Non-agave spirits: rum, banana distillate, and what else Jalisco makes
00:47:34 - Raicilla
00:51:41 - Mezcal, smokiness, DO politics, and the Jalisco tangle
00:54:10 - The name: why El Gallo Altanero means "against all odds, I will fly"
00:55:45 - How 50 Best changed the bar — and how it didn't
01:04:03 - Guest shifts: how they started and Iain McPherson's panda tattoo
01:07:25 - Playing the 50 Best game vs. staying true to yourself
01:08:23 - The 8th anniversary collaboration tequila with Tapatio
01:10:19 - Fandango: the new classics bar, born from "what do you actually want to drink?"
01:18:20 - Against cocktail homogenisation: why place identity matters
01:21:33 - The pub as cultural institution and what bars can learn from it
01:23:50 - Tasting the Siete Leguas special edition: Jalisco's most perfumed nose
01:25:44 - The Bartenders' Bartender Award: finding out and keeping the secret
01:29:47 - Fandango's upper floor, shaking martinis in 30-degree heat, and the Guinness problem
01:35:56 - What's next: liquor store, a new tequila idea, and a dream distillery for 2027
📷 Follow me on Instagram - instagram.com/tristanstephenson
📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - thecuriousbartender.com
Freddy Andreasson is a 6'4" Swede from the small town of Falkenburg who grew up working a conveyor belt at the Falcon Brewery, spent his late teens dealing weed, and bought a one-way ticket to Melbourne with the proceeds.
He arrived in Melbourne with nowhere to stay and a litre of Jim Beam in his bag. That journey through Australian kitchens and coffee machines, via a period of real personal darkness in Guadalajara, eventually led him to co-found El Gallo Altanero in 2017: a bar dedicated entirely to independent agave spirits from Jalisco, with a menu that changed every week.
Eight years in, the bar the bar has been featured on global 50 Best list, and Freddy has just been named the 2026 Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award winner — the only peer-voted accolade in the programme.
On the episode we talk about what it actually takes to earn the trust of Mexican tequila producers as an outsider, why terroir means more in agave than almost anywhere else in the spirits world, and what happened when the 50 Best spotlight hit a bar that was never designed to be a destination.
We also get into the new bar — Fandango, a classics-only concept two years in the making, built around a simple question: what do you actually want to drink? — plus the politics of mezcal DOCs, raicilla, why the most romantic bars in the world are often the most stubborn, and a dream distillery project coming soon.
With thanks to our sponsors:
🍋🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves
🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye and absolutely no additives.
🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15
00:00:00 - Welcome to the building site
00:02:24 - From sex shop to cocktail bar: the building's history
00:03:42 - Growing up in Sweden: the factory, the brewery, the escape plan
00:05:33 - Buying a one-way ticket to Melbourne with drug money
00:08:08 - Solo travel, barflies, and finding yourself broke in a kitchen
00:11:16 - Teaching himself coffee and getting on the machine
00:27:48 - How tequila changed everything
00:29:52 - Arriving in Mexico: the café, sleeping on the floor, rock bottom
00:33:12 - Sobriety, sun salutations, and taking control
00:34:23 - Closing the café, opening the bar
00:37:15 - Falling into agave: visiting distilleries and getting obsessed
00:42:35 - The bar's philosophy: independent spirits from Jalisco only
00:44:07 - The rotating menu: weekly to every two months
00:45:48 - Non-agave spirits: rum, banana distillate, and what else Jalisco makes
00:47:34 - Raicilla
00:51:41 - Mezcal, smokiness, DO politics, and the Jalisco tangle
00:54:10 - The name: why El Gallo Altanero means "against all odds, I will fly"
00:55:45 - How 50 Best changed the bar — and how it didn't
01:04:03 - Guest shifts: how they started and Iain McPherson's panda tattoo
01:07:25 - Playing the 50 Best game vs. staying true to yourself
01:08:23 - The 8th anniversary collaboration tequila with Tapatio
01:10:19 - Fandango: the new classics bar, born from "what do you actually want to drink?"
01:18:20 - Against cocktail homogenisation: why place identity matters
01:21:33 - The pub as cultural institution and what bars can learn from it
01:23:50 - Tasting the Siete Leguas special edition: Jalisco's most perfumed nose
01:25:44 - The Bartenders' Bartender Award: finding out and keeping the secret
01:29:47 - Fandango's upper floor, shaking martinis in 30-degree heat, and the Guinness problem
01:35:56 - What's next: liquor store, a new tequila idea, and a dream distillery for 2027
📷 Follow me on Instagram - instagram.com/tristanstephenson
📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - thecuriousbartender.com
