I was recently invited to a friend’s birthday drinks at a new venue in Lagos. The only problem was finding it!
This new bar opened in March, but far from announcing its presence in the old town of Lagos with hard-to-miss hoarding or a swanky shop front, this intimate space is intended to be hidden behind a forbidden door.
Armed with a Google map location shared by the birthday girl I eventually found the red door, cleverly concealed in a side street. It was necessary to ring a bell and then wait to be admitted which led to the air of drama that we found on entering.
The inner sanctum felt clandestine, with thick curtains obscuring the interior as we were admitted by a barman. The interior space has deep red walls, making it feel surreptitious while also creating a womb-like space where you feel immediately closeted.
One of the partners in the new business told me: “We were looking to provide an intimate space where family and friends could gather around for drinks, good conversations and great memories – we ourselves craved for such a place around town. We envisioned a place capable of making you forget about the extreme heat, the overcrowded bars and streets, and overall day-to-day stresses, somewhere you’d forget about your worries and let yourself be transported to a different time.”
The concept of recreating the Speakeasy has become popular in many big cities, a retro-style bar that replicates aspects of these historical forbidden drinking dens that were common during American prohibition. The new bar in Lagos was founded by five business partners: Catarina Loureiro – bartender, Welder Almeida – bartender, Ruben Martins – chef and restaurant owner, Júlia Franco – restaurant owner and entrepreneur and Alexandre Baptista – restaurant owner and entrepreneur.
The cocktail menu was like setting kids loose in a sweet shop for our group of ladies. It comprised cocktails you had never heard of, each with its own theatricality as it was prepared for you at the table. You could also select a typical selection of drinks, but when I ordered a gin and tonic, it was a boutique gin with delicious and unusual flavours.
The highly original house cocktails include the Portuguese Old Fashion. A riff on the Old Fashion, they use a technique called fat wash to infuse chorizo into the bourbon, which they then combine with the smokiness of palo santo and the bitterness of the Angostura to create this smoky, savoury and spicy concoction.
We also sampled the Asian Bubbles, a chance to indulge in a citric, vibrant and fresh cocktail. Our server Catarina suggested this gorgeous cocktail which is a combination of gin, homemade cordial using yuzu pulp, fresh lemon and lime juices, sugar, muddled kaffir lime leaves, citric solution and a touch of elderflower. They use a kaffir lime edible perfume to intensify the aromas and, when it was brought to the table, they created a smoke bubble that explodes in the mouth for an olfactory invitation to sip this summer beauty.
And if you feel like being furtive this summer, the Forbidden Door is offering Tomorrow readers a 10% discount if they announce the password at paycheck time: “We are forbidden!”
Now all you have to do is find it …
PHOTOGRAPHY @Ola Mila
