Red Light: Manchester’s best cocktail spot?!

We went down to the brilliant Red Light over at Kampus to try out some of their brilliant cocktails and learn a bit more about their story.

Transcript

00:00Could this be Manchester's best cocktail? Hi I'm Theo Hewson-Bertz with Manchester

00:04World and today I'm visiting Red Light, one of the best cocktail places in

00:07Manchester. Now they're award-winning and famed for their amazing range of

00:11brilliant top-quality cocktails, sourced from some of the best ingredients in the

00:15world. So I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna try it out, I'm gonna let you know what I think

00:19and we'll talk a little bit about the story of the place as well. So we're

00:22inside Red Light and just to give you a little bit of context now obviously this

00:25is part of campus which is one of the newer planned neighbourhoods here in

00:30Manchester. It's sort of built around the Gay Village, there's a few blocks of

00:34really historic brick warehouses that have been converted into homes at one

00:38point and now have been shifted into shops. Red Light is actually pretty unique

00:42here in Manchester. It's so cool because this area used to have a bit of a

00:45reputation as a bit of a clandestine red light district and actually they've

00:49managed to reflect that in the way that the place is laid out. You do have

00:53obviously red LED lights set out everywhere and it really does feel like

00:57a lounge jumping back to sort of the 60s 70s with a really laid-back vibe. Now

01:02online you'll see this place described as judgment-free and laid-back and it's

01:06got to be worth noting that the staff here are absolutely top-notch too. It's

01:10open from Wednesday through to Sunday opening at 4 p.m. The walls are adorned

01:14with images from gay pride rallies and really powerful images too of people

01:19pushing for rights. This place really does feel as though it's built to fit

01:22Manchester now and also reflect Manchester's history but I think it's

01:26high time that I stopped talking and started trying the cocktails. Now I'm

01:31afraid to say I'm one of those annoying people who would go into a bar and allow

01:34the bartender to choose my drink but in this case it has paid dividends because

01:38Jess one of the brilliant members of staff here referred me to one of her very

01:42own drinks the Viceroy and the fact that the bartenders are given the ability and

01:46the freedom to create their own drinks based on their own past and their own

01:49personal experiences is absolutely brilliant. Now this here is the Viceroy so

01:56pardon me if I butcher some of the pronunciations of this but it's got

01:59Lillet Rose, Bacardi Coconut Run, Chambresette, Strawberry Coconut and

02:03Champagne in it so let's give it a try.

02:08See that's a really really smooth sweet layered drink and one of the things that I love actually here

02:17is instead of just assuming that you know a lot about cocktails on the menu they'll give you three

02:21or four describing words just to sort of talk you through what you should be expecting to get from

02:25a cocktail and in this case they've done just that effervescent layered and crushable meaning it's

02:32very easy to drink and I've got to say it absolutely is the coconut comes through really really nicely

02:38there's a bit of a hint of strawberry in there too the fact that it's garnished

02:40with a lime as well means you get a bit of a citrusy kick it's an eminently drinkable drink

02:45and it is just one of the many brilliant cocktails that they have here I am going to leave it here

02:50I'm going to enjoy this in peace and I'm going to recommend heavily to you get down to red light

02:54and give it a try follow Manchester World for more. Thank you very much.