The Blacksmith Bar
Check your leather apron and tools at the door — this Richmond bar pours drinks, not molten steel.
Overview
The vision of a blacksmith's bar is a little rough around the edges. You'd expect sooty walls, a near-constant clang of metal on metal, a sweltering heat and probably nothing more comfortable to sit on than an anvil. Lucky that's just in your imagination, then. The real Blacksmith Bar is far from it inside its historic home on Swan Street, which is completely soot-free.
Drawing a crowd with its outside seating alone, getting out of the cold means getting into a space of white stone walls and dark wooden furnishings. It's purposely Prohibition-esque, harkening back to the building's past as an actual blacksmithy in the early 1920s. That thematic dedication extends to everything from the menu to the uniforms.
You might not be surprised that the cocktail menu puts classics front and centre, but there's a nice selection of house specialties to sip, too. On a hot day, don't overlook the completely customisable Summer Swizzle or Blacksmith Martini, the former of which lets you pick from four flavours and four spirits to DIY a flavour profile, while the latter uses The Botanist Gin and Indian Tonic with your pick of nine floral and fruit flavours.
On the premade end, a cold day calls for the Masala Harvest (caramel-infused Havana Especial, pear juice, sugar and homemade chai soda) or the Two-Faced Bitch (Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Montenegro, blackberry syrup, orange bitters, Angostura bitters, lime and whites. Sweltering? Try Hold the Salt, an outside-the-box spin on a margarita.
On the food front, gourmet bar snacks are the name of the game. Chips, dips, olives and cheese are all in rotation, but you'd best not pass on larger bites. Take the three-cheese toastie in all its crispy, gooey glory, or go full stickyfingers with a plate of pork ribs served with a sticky Stone & Wood Pacific Ale glaze.
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