Three Horses: the Sherry-led sequel to Caretaker’s Cottage
Rob Libecans, co-founder of Melbourne’s Caretaker’s Cottage, reveals all about saddling up his Sherry-forward sister venue, Three Horses.
*This feature was originally published in the December 2025 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
A tiny brick cottage that’s more than 100 years old in the centre of Melbourne, self-styled as “probably Victoria’s smallest pub”, is one of Australasia’s best bars – and perhaps even the world’s. The bar in question is Caretaker’s Cottage: “It pretty much runs like a UK or an Irish boozer,” says co-founder Rob Libecans. “We didn’t reinvent the wheel. We just made it a part of home. That was it.”
Libecans, who is English, opened the venue in 2022 with Matt Stirling and Ryan Noreiks. Each has more than 20 years’ experience in hospitality, counting a number of top bars between them. Considering the hype behind Caretaker’s, it was only a matter of time before talks of a sequel began, and in September the trio opened Three Horses.
While Caretaker’s fancies itself as a pub, Libecans says with certainty that its sister venue is “definitely a cocktail bar”. It is found “literally 10 doors away” from Caretaker’s, Libecans says of the Little Lonsdale Street location, meaning the team have created their own axis around Wesley Place to an extent, as they own two of the only four licensed buildings on the block. “It’s a really cool end of town,” Libecans says.
Origin story
Behind its bar top hangs artwork from Stirling’s aunt that depicts three horses. “I grew up in pubs, and I always liked that idea that you don’t ever rename a ship, you don’t ever rename a boat, and you don’t ever rename a pub,” Libecans says. The building was formerly a bar called Troika. “For God knows how long I’ve lived in Melbourne – over 20 years now – it was a Russian kind of dive bar, like a student hangout. It had aluminium on the ceiling because the owner didn’t want to pay for heating. It was strange,” he recalls of the space’s earlier form.
“Originally there were three owners, and one of them, Paul, was Russian – and ‘troika’ is the Russian word for three,” he adds, showing how the bar’s name has evolved but kept the same spirit.
At Caretaker’s, the team pours 40,000-odd pints of Guinness a year. This won’t be happening at Three Horses, with Sherry instead spotlighted as the featured serve. The crew got on a Sherry kick after travelling in Spain, finding similarities between Spanish culture and Melbourne.
“In Melbourne we have a lot of Mediterranean immigrants, particularly post-war,” Libecans notes. “There are fig and lemon trees everywhere, and everyone seems to have an olive tree in their garden. It doesn’t seem exotic, it just blends in.” When the team was in Spain last year, they again drew parallels to where they live. “We have three major wine regions all surrounding the city [Melbourne] and I’m living in one of them,” Libecans says. “Everyone grows up here working either connected to wineries, in wine, or cellar doors or something. Everyone knows about vermouths and Sherries and apéritifs. We thought this is an easy thing to reinterpret in our own language.”
Gaining momentum
The team initially pitched the concept to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, which takes place in March. “We pitched it to them as an idea for a pop-up, recreating a Sherry bar for a week in a shipping container,” he says. “Then, when we found this spot [the space that is now Three Horses], we just thought: ‘Well, there’s nothing stopping us doing this now’. These ideas just gained momentum – it just felt fun.”
While Caretaker’s is known for its small (some may say cramped) space, with more room, and also more cash, Libecans says Three Horses is a place where the team can “really stretch their legs”, both literally and in the creative sense. The 16-strong cocktail menu brings sour drinks, rich drinks, tall drinks, and even whipped drinks, all spruced up with an injection of Sherry. For instance, a slushy-like Margarita whips lime sorbet with Espolòn Blanco Tequila and Mandarin Sherry.
While Caretaker’s turns around a new menu monthly, the cocktails at Three Horses will have a longer stay, with a new menu being launched every season.
One item that the team has transported from Caretaker’s is the House Martini, which is made with a house gin collaborated on with Four Pillars, and a house dry vermouth. Three Horses offers a Sherry version called the Jabberwock, which incorporates a splash of fino. Libecans estimates Caretaker’s sells 20,000 Martinis a year, and it has become a cult favourite.
“I wouldn’t say it’s lucky with the Martini, but we have always had that dream of having a place where you go for that one thing,” he says. “Attaboy for the Penicillin, or for me, drinking Martinis at the Savoy. It feels like you shouldn’t be drinking anything else there. With us and the House Martini, it just kicked off and created a business for it.”
There’s also a focus on Australian products, particularly when it comes to Sherry and apera. “There are so many suppliers and producers that we can rest on here without us having to leave Victoria,” says Libecans.
He explains that the bar has to work quite consciously with produce. “Australia is very different from the UK. You’re forced to live seasonally here; you only get cherries where we live for three weeks a year, or good strawberries for two months. It’s idiotic to try and eat outside of those seasons, because you’re getting the worst fruit at the worst price. It’s the way we live, so we always buy in bulk and use absolutely everything from the fruit,” he says, adding that surplus fruit is made into sorbet at Three Horses.
“We always have avenues where we can reduce waste and repurpose things, but I would never say it’s simply a ‘sustainable thing’,” he adds. “It’s just about the least amount of impact when we have a business whose true nature is to consume.”
Though people might gravitate to Caretaker’s for the Guinness and cocktails, it’s the team’s hospitality that keeps its punters lingering. Explaining the approach to service, Libecans says “people in our venues are our friends, and our places are very laidback”. He calls the atmosphere a mix of chaotic and easy-going, with the team’s healthy vinyl collection always playing in the background.
“Our venues are designed to be treated like a pub, and you treat pubs a little differently than you do cocktail bars,” he says. For instance, Three Horses is bar service only, and it also does not offer food.
“The idea is that we get the maximum amount of time with you, delivering stuff tableside or pouring drinks tableside, but the bulk of the interactions are at the bar,” he explains. “That’s something we’ve grown to love.”
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