Manly's Bartender Extraordinaire
At the top of his game, entrepreneur mixologist Kieran Bailey educates and entertains behind the stick at Henry Afrika's Sugar Lounge.
Drinks expert Kieran Bailey has gained accolades and fans worldwide over 7 years in the industry. The business-minded bartender has as firm a grasp of marketing and sales as mixing martinis. The sought after brand ambassador transformed industrial Birmingham, England into a cosmopolitan showcase for drink knowledgeable night crawlers at 52°North.
Behind the ultra hip stick at London’s Light Bar, Kieran honed the skills that earned him “United Kingdom Grand Marnier Bartender of the Year” in 2002. Striving to create refined environments for his hand crafted drinks (his signature cocktail was published in the internationally acclaimed “Cinzano Cocktail Book”) Kieran seeks to educate his customers in the art of drinking, which hinges upon the proper ambience. “You have to play to people’s senses. So many times bars and bar managers overlook ambience. I went to a place today, it was too dark, the music was too loud. Doesn’t matter that the food was great.”
The highly regarded mixologist followed a girlfriend to Sydney, meeting some early scepticism that Manly-siders could be transformed into savvy connoisseurs. With the overwhelming success of Henry Afrikas’ Sugar Lounge, those same nay-sayers are now beating down his door to get involved. Transforming Manly’s cocktail culture was just a matter of changing the perspective of bartenders and customers alike. Teaching them that finely crafted spirits are to be savoured. That creatively conceived cocktails are on par with high cuisine for a share of the sophisticated palette.
It doesn’t take much coaxing to get someone, like Cuba aficionado Ernest Hemingway, who’s had a great mojito to have another. Though Kieran admits that the globally popular lime and muddled mint rum concoction is “a pain in the ass to make, it is a real delight to drink.” You just have to take the first sip.
Visit Kieran Bailey nightly at Henry Afrika’s Sugar Lounge and get educated. Wear black. Study hard.
Kieran’s made Our Manly a signature cocktail, the eponymously named “Our Manly Cocktail” with premium Belvedere vodka and pomegranate juice. Check out the Our Manly Pomegrante Martini recipe, or have one made at Sugar Lounge.
And look forward to the unveiling of Kieran’s DIY cocktail kit, coming soon.