2020 marks 100 years since prohibition began in America – the ideal opportunity for DRAM to profile managers/owner-managers of some of Scotland’s most talked-about speakeasy bars, and today it’s the turn of Tippling House Manager, Joe Nelson..
Joe Nelson, 32, has managed the 100-capacity Tippling House in Aberdeen, owned by Adrian Gomes, for three years. It’s been trading for eight. He says that one of the biggest pulls is the hours.
“You’ve got to be nocturnal to work in a speakeasy. We close at 3 am and then by the time I wind down I’m going to bed at 7 am. That’s also why we’re a bartenders’ bar because they all descend here once they’ve knocked off.
“There’s also a real camaraderie among speakeasy staff. My team of 10 is tight and they bounce ideas off of each other and support one another.”
The outside of this speakeasy is a simple ‘artistic’ window display which, according to Joe, “kind of suggests we are a bar without screaming it.”