The team behind WAT Den has opened its second Mooloolaba venue, Hid Den, a 20-seat cocktail bar built around technique, theatre and an omakase-style guest experience.
The opening follows a big year for WAT Den, which was named Regional Bar of the Year at the 2026 Australian Bar Awards.
Located at Mantra Mooloolaba, Hid Den takes its inspiration from the small bars and omakase-style chef’s tables co-owner Dean Mariani encountered while travelling in Japan.
“Their tiny bars, the omakase chef’s tables, I fell in love with that obsessive attention to detail and presentation,” said Mariani.
“Hid Den takes that Japanese minimalism and blends it with the beach. Almost every seat faces the bar, because the bar is the stage.”
The drinks program is led by venue manager and co-owner Bri Reilly, who was named in Drinks World’s Top 100 Bartenders Australia in 2025 and 2026 and won the Archie Rose White Cane cocktail competition in 2025.
At Hid Den, almost every seat faces the bar, with the venue’s cocktail techniques performed directly in front of guests.
The only drink shared between WAT Den and Hid Den is Message In A Bottle, the fat-washed signature that has appeared on every WAT Den menu since 2023. It combines bacon-and-butter-washed Michter’s bourbon and rye, served in a frozen bottle filled with applewood smoke and poured at the seat.
Across the rest of the list, the team works with techniques including liquid nitrogen, rapid infusion, spherification, clarification, carbonation, smoke and fire.
The Velvet Curtain is a clarified ruby-red sour finished with blowtorched meringue, while Golden Summit is a Pornstar Martini served with Prosecco sorbet churned to order using liquid nitrogen.
Other techniques include the Blue Blazer pour on a Black Manhattan, mandarin pearls and carbonated grapefruit served beneath a Tajín air. The non-alcoholic Chasing Waterfalls is a Tom Collins-style drink that changes colour as it is poured.
For Reilly, the stories behind the drinks are just as important as the techniques used to make them.
“All my drinks stem from my family, their cooking, our special moments together, tangible memories,” said Reilly.
“I pride myself on making drinks with a story, drinks that can appeal to a multitude of people and palates. Drinks should be relatable, fun and yum.”
Reilly first came across WAT Den after attending one of the venue’s tequila masterclasses and later stepped into the Venue Manager role in 2024.
Since then, she has taken part in bar takeovers at Bar Love in Perth, Sante in Toowoomba and Dark Red in Brisbane, competed in the Greenhorn, Rooster Rojo and Archie Rose competitions.
Hid Den operates under a strict walk-in model, with no bookings. When the 20-seat venue is full, WAT Den, located a short walk down the Esplanade, acts as the waiting room.
“It’s a modern speakeasy, but lively and fun, not pretentious,” said Mariani. “We’re discrete, not secret.”
