On a quiet evening in Lekki, with the Atlantic at their backs, some of the city’s best bartenders gathered for something rarer than a free pour: a genuine conversation about craft, culture, and what it means to serve the right whiskey.
The venue was Lighthouse Lekki, intimate, coastal, and deliberately chosen. You could hear the waves from inside, and for an evening built around one of the world’s most iconic whiskeys, the setting said everything.
Between thirty and forty of Lagos’ most respected bartenders filled the room, from veterans who have shaped the city’s cocktail scene to emerging mixologists still building their names. They were not there as consumers but as professionals, and Jack Daniel’s treated them accordingly.
“Bartenders are some of the most influential storytellers in our industry,” said Funmi Abimbola, Senior Brand Manager at Jack Daniel’s. “The average bartender makes close to eleven thousand drink recommendations a year. Lagos is no different, and an experience like this is our way of recognising that.”
The day opened with a guided tasting of four expressions led by Brand Ambassador Ewaleifoh Jude: Old No. 7, Tennessee Fire, Tennessee Honey and Tennessee Apple. Jude walked the room through the Lincoln County Process, the charcoal-mellowing step that filters every drop through ten feet of sugar maple before it ever sees a barrel.
“What we poured at Lighthouse was over a century of decisions made the same way,” he said. “Those banana and caramel notes on Old No. 7 are not an accident. They are craft, and bartenders deserve to know the craft they are serving.”
Tennessee Fire brought the most immediate energy. Tennessee Apple was the surprise of the night, its crisp freshness inviting lighter, more accessible serves. Tennessee Honey drew quieter, more considered reactions. Old No. 7, with its charcoal-mellowed signature, felt like a homecoming.
After the tasting, the brief was simple: reinterpret Jack Daniel’s. Take any expression and build something true to who you are, and true to Lagos as a city. The room shifted. Cocktails came together with instinct: some clean and classic, some unexpected, some deeply local. Mixologist and lifestyle creator Oyin Ademii judged the showcase, moving through the room with a presence the bartenders responded to.
By the time the evening wound down, with the ocean still in the background, what lingered was simpler than a campaign. A room of professionals, treated as professionals, somewhere on the Lagos coast, with a whiskey worth the conversation.
Sponsored Content
The post Inside the Room Where Lagos Bartenders Met Jack Daniel’s appeared first on BellaNaija – Showcasing Africa to the world. Read today!.
