Most popular drink: It’s a toss-up between the Basil and Peach Hendricks Gin Cocktail and the Hendricks and Socks gin and tonic.
Who’s the most famous person you’ve served?ChianoSky, Da L.E.S and champion fighter Soldier Boy were here.
Barman’s Cocktail: 8.5/10. I’m already a big fan of Hendricks’ fresh, clean, taste, usually garnished with cucumber rather than lemon. It gives the drink a new, interesting spin with the peppery taste of basil, balancing well with the peach syrup without overwhelming the rose fusion in the gin.
Barman’s personality: 9/10. Smith is informative, entertaining and generous. He even gave me a Hendricks souvenir to make my own cocktails at home.
in search of the perfect cocktail
The Union's gin bar revives spirit of the speakeasy
Illovo, Joburg
There’s nothing like a bit of prohibition to get desire levels raging. That’s why the speakeasy – a bar that illegally sold alcohol during the US’s Prohibition era – became so wildly popular.
Invisible to those not in the know, a speakeasy was a hole in the wall, where patrons knocked three times, said the secret word and were ushered into a hidden world of delicious illicit behaviour. The speakeasy disappeared when Prohibition ended in 1933 and bootleggers went out of business, but the great establishments like The Bath Club in New York are legendary.
The Union is reviving the spirit of the speakeasy with a pop-up bar in Norman
Goodfellows’ Illovo stock room. Dimly lit by a mismatched collection of lamp shades, the place pays homage to both The Bath Club and the bathtub hooch that was served there with a ball-and-claw enamel tub in the entrance. But the hooch at The Union is as good as you can get. The bar is sponsored by Hendrick’s, a cucumber and rose-infused premium gin.
That means the cocktails are classic, like gin and tonic, served with artisanal, individually numbered Socks Tonic or original, such as Peach and Basil Gin. These are served up in a tea cup-wine stem fusion by mixologist Keegan Smith, who calls himself the Bar Smith. It’s fruity, herby and delicious and after knocking back a few of these babies you’ll soon be doing the Charleston to the electro-swing beats and celebrating those heady days.
Image: Annalize Nel
Most popular drink: It’s a toss-up between the Basil and Peach Hendricks Gin Cocktail and the Hendricks and Socks gin and tonic.
Who’s the most famous person you’ve served?ChianoSky, Da L.E.S and champion fighter Soldier Boy were here.
Barman’s Cocktail: 8.5/10. I’m already a big fan of Hendricks’ fresh, clean, taste, usually garnished with cucumber rather than lemon. It gives the drink a new, interesting spin with the peppery taste of basil, balancing well with the peach syrup without overwhelming the rose fusion in the gin.
Barman’s personality: 9/10. Smith is informative, entertaining and generous. He even gave me a Hendricks souvenir to make my own cocktails at home.
JUNE 2015