Ojo Rojo named as one of the best cocktail bars in the UK

OJO Rojo in Bournemouth town centre has been named among the top 50 cocktail bars in the UK.

The specialist mezcal and tequila bar, in Commercial Road, has placed among some of the biggest names in the cocktail industry.

Finding out their position in a special event held at One Night Records in London, the Ojo Rojo team celebrated winning 46th place in the country.

Trevor Hill, one of the owners of Ojo Rojo, contracted Covid-19 and was unable to attend the awards. He said: “The team that went up all deserved to be there, they’ve been a part of the process to get us there and they represented well and had a very fun evening.”

Trevor Hill, Ojo Rojo

He added: “We have one of the largest stocks of mezcal and tequila in the UK - it’s definitely the largest on the south coast and everything that we do is angled at making mezcal and tequila more approachable to people.

“One of the missions we set out with was to show people how beautiful the spirit is and how good it can be when it’s drunk right.”

Giving the team freedom to be creative with their cocktails and providing them with some of the best training around by bar manager Gemma Terry, is said to be the secret to their winning touch.

'geniuses in their field'

“The bar tending team that we’ve got at Ojo Rojo are so incredibly good at their job, they love going up to London and going to these award nominated bars and they really use that as an inspiration,” said Trevor.

“I give the bar team a lot of free reign to do what they want with the drinks and what we end up with is some really high grade drinks using really good products.

“The guys that are making them are geniuses in their field.

“They’re making cocktails you wouldn’t normally think of and people come in and absolutely love them.”

The small Bournemouth bar and restaurant has already been nationally recognised, previously winning ‘best tequila cocktail in Britain’ award last year and two years ago they won the ‘best Mezcal in Britain’ award.

Looking ahead Trevor and his team are already planning on being in the top 10 cocktail bars next year and are already working on a new menu.

In first place was Cardiff-based bar Lab 22 followed by Swift Soho and The Connaught Bar both in London.