On Exhibition Street in Melbourne, atop Filipino dining spot Askal, sits a cozy roofdeck cocktail bar that makes its mark playing with the islands’ flavors. Inuman is the latest concept from Askal’s Michael Mabuti and John Rivera, featuring a menu curated by co-owner and beverage director Ralph Libo-on. Libo-on cut his teeth at tending bar with the Britomart Hospitality Company, working as a specialist at spots like Racket Bar and 1885. A decade later, he joined up with Mabuti and Rivera at Askal, before opening his current playground, Inuman. The bar is as much an homage to his Filipino roots as it is to his Kiwi upbringing. “[‘Inuman’ is] derivative and related to the words such as ‘inu’, ‘inum’, ‘inom’, ‘minum’, which represent ‘drink’ in many countries stretching across Austronesia, from [the] Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, to Aotearoa, New Zealand. This ethos of drinking is engrained in our cultural connections,” Libo-on..
