A cocktail bar above a working distillery, nestled at the base of Table Mountain in Cape Town. Hope Distillery has changed how guests experience their spirits with exceptional cocktails crafted by resident bartender Derrick (AKA Decks), and tasting flights paired with light snacks. StrangeLove Cocktail Lounge is breaking new ground in the bustling bar scene.
We sat down with the visionaries behind the brand, Lucy Beard and her husband Leigh Lisk, and got to know more about what goes on day-to-day, what they recommend trying from their menu, how it all came to be, and how Dineplan has taken some of the admin off their hands.
Image Credit: Kate McLuckie
Then.
Image Credit: Warren Heath
Now.
A cocktail bar above a working distillery, please share the story of StrangeLove and your journey to reaching this point.
We’ve always had the mezzanine space overlooking the working distillery floor and knew that it was the perfect place to show it off. Initially, after our first year, we opened it as a Tasting Room, offering gin and later including other spirits we make, as well as occasionally offering Masterclasses.
During the lockdown, we worked with some of the bar teams who had been mostly out of work due to the various alcohol bans and ran it as a small bar on Friday evenings. This made us realise that the space would work brilliantly as a bar, and we wanted to do something fresh and new. We transformed the space with new furniture, and moodier paint and the StrangeLove Cocktail Lounge was born.
Resident Bartender Derrick "Decks" and StrangeLove bartenders shaking up some cocktails.
What sparked your interest in the world of spirits and distilling?
We had been working overseas as lawyers and took a year out to go travelling around southern Europe. We soon realised that we didn’t want to go back to corporate life and were longing for good weather, so a return to South Africa seemed the obvious next step.
The year we were travelling gin was having a real moment in southern Europe and we wondered how hard it could be to set up a small distillery.
A few Googles later, we realised that although distilling is science, it’s not rocket science, and it would be something that we could learn. – Lucy Beard, Co-owner of StrangeLove and Hope Distillery
The plan was hatched, the equipment was ordered and the rest is history! The Tasting Room had always highlighted our gins, but not many people were aware that we also make other spirits, so the cocktail bar aims to highlight all the different spirits we make – and we aim to make as much in-house as possible!
How did you settle on the name StrangeLove? Being a massive Depeche Mode fan, I’ve always wondered whether it’s related to the 80s electro band in any way?
Yes, it is! We are both children of the ‘80s – and both big Depeche Mode fans. We came down to a shortlist of 3 different possible names for the bar, and StrangeLove won – hands down!
With a bustling bar scene in the Mother City, what makes StrangeLove stand out from the rest?
A couple of things stand out: it’s USP is very much that it is a bar in a working distillery and there are not many of these in the world!
Another two things worth noting are the fact that we make as many of the cocktail ingredients in-house as we can. These include things like our house-made coffee liqueur and our African Amaro, which we use to replace the traditional Campari in our Negroni Sour and Sbagliato. Both The coffee liqueur and African Amaro will be available to buy from the bar soon.
Additionally, we like guests to try our “tasting menu”, AKA our House Menu, where you choose an aperitif, a main and a digestif, and each is served with a perfectly paired small bite. But, unlike fine dining restaurants, here the cocktail is the main event at StrangeLove and the food pairing is the accompaniment.
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Your menu has an entire page dedicated to martinis. What inspired you to highlight this particular classic at Hope?
We’re both big martini fans and feel that it is one of the most misunderstood drinks in South Africa.
Our Martini Menu aims to highlight the differences between martinis showcasing 9 different classics as well as a tasting flight, where guests can order 3 mini martinis. This is a great way to explore the differences between each martini, and discover which style is your favourite.
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Is there a particular cocktail on your menu, or one that you’re planning to add, that you are particularly excited about?
Our White Negroni Sour, on our House Menu, is a definite highlight. Using our house-made African Amaro, Bianco vermouth and our London Dry Gin, our resident bartender Derrick “Decks” Hartman shakes up this negroni with lemon and sugar to turn it into a sour, this softens it and definitely makes it more accessible than a traditional Negroni.
It is paired with an unbelievable Negroni jelly (made for us by our friends at Table Seven up the road) and Huguenot cheese.
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We hope that Dineplan takes some of the admin off your hands when it comes to running your bar but, as a busy distillery, how does a typical day of managing operations look like for you?
Dineplan helps with the admin side – the distillery is a crazy beast of an operation: no two days are the same and we generally never get to actually finish a conversation as there’s so much happening!
A normal day would include; distilling, bottling, and labelling, then tending to deliveries, pick-ups, and orders. The sales team has meetings in the StrangeLove space during the day, while we do in-house tastings to ensure consistency and quality. Decks works on new drinks and bar prepping. There is also planning and chatting with our contract gin customers (for the gins we make for other brands) and experimenting with new concoctions.
During the day we also get a flow of people popping in to buy bottles, see the distillery and make a reservation for the bar.
Who or what has had the greatest influence on your journey?
For the StrangeLove journey, it’s got to be the classic cocktail bars of London. These have had the greatest influence on us wanting to bring something of that magic to Cape Town. Our aim with StrangeLove is to ensure the drinks are exceptional (and thanks to Decks we think they are), served in beautiful glassware and paired with small nibbles. Our table service also sets us apart and makes for a relaxed yet sophisticated experience.
StrangeLove Cocktail Lounge. Image credit Warren Heath
Tasty nibbles served table-side
StrangeLove Clover Club. Image credit Warren Heath
The StrangeLove Clover Club – a classic
We then asked resident bartender Derrick “Decks” if he’d be willing to share an easy but delicious cocktail recipe with us. And he delivered! His take on the El Presidente is something that everyone can recreate at home and whip up to impress their guests. Find the recipe here.
While Cape Town is spoiled for choice with bars, StrangeLove is an experience from the moment you enter the doors. From the unique space, out-of-this-world cocktails made from in-house spirits and an extensive menu, there is no doubt that everyone will find something that will hit the spot.
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