When Alex Young first floated the idea of opening a cocktail bar in the Dorset market town of Blandford Forum, it was met with scepticism. “They said cocktails wouldn’t work in town,” but, he adds, “I’m a stubborn bastard.”
Three years later, Young has dispelled that myth in style. Launched with his wife Emma Woodward in May 2019, Ginger Viking (a nickname Young and his huge beard acquired from some Danish friends) has found a loyal audience among discerning locals often pleasantly bemused to find a regular at national bartending competitions mixing drinks in Blandford. That their goodwill has translated into OFM’s 2022 Best Place to Drink award “still hasn’t sunk in yet”.
In a former Baptist gospel hall out past East Street’s takeaways, Ginger’s ground-floor operates as deli-cafe by day and 10-tap beer bar by night. On the upper-floor, Young’s team work their mixology magic in a table-service lounge that the 43-year-old describes as “very civilised”.
A former hydraulic engineer, Young had been fascinated by cocktails for years. It wasn’t until he took a career break aged 36 (“to be fair, it was a midlife crisis”) that he turned his knowledge into a business making Victorian-style fruit cordials, historically used as gin mixers. Success at cocktail competitions led to Ginger Viking pop-ups in 2018, paving the way for a permanent venue.
Opened for just £15,000, upcycling, sustainability and DIY are key tenets at Ginger Viking. “Everything can be done on a shoestring. It depends how fancy you want to make it,” says Young, who spent lockdown gluing and epoxy-coating 7,270 1p pieces to create his craft beer bar-top: “It looks super-cool.”.
Ginger Viking makes all its own cordials (including traditional fruit and vinegar-based “shrubs”), sugar syrups, coffee liqueurs and concentrated tinctures, created by infusing alcohol with various ingredients. Garnishes and flavourings are often foraged in what Young calls the “outside larder”. The fields around Blandford are abundant with red- and blackcurrants, rosemary and mint: “You can pick fresh lemon verbena and there’s samphire all around the county.”
Dorset has a further walk-on role in Young’s beloved creation, Smokey and the Bandit, a mix of Johnnie Walker Black Label, lemon juice and Angostura bitters shaken to a foam with egg white, and finished with “really dry” Smuggler from Cranborne Chase Cider. Dry, smoky, sweet and apple-y, he declares it “a banger”.
Other stand-outs, such as the “crystal clear Margarita; it looks like water”, are complex, requiring confectioner’s lime oil, citric acid and repeated heating. Young, who also smokes one Old Fashioned under a cloche at the table, “Heston Blumenthal-style”, loves the theatre of such drinks.
Drinkers may sit on secondhand restaurant chairs, bought as a £700 job lot, but Young can be extravagant. In Ginger Viking’s more expensive drinks (prices range from £7 to £25.50), he is not afraid to include spirits not commonly used in mixed drinks. One daiquiri uses a £75 bottle of dark rum: “It makes the best daiquiri. It’s not wasting it. It’s elevating it to the next level.”
Young tries to go with the flow. The customer is nearly always right. You like your espresso martini extra sweet? No problem. But he refuses to serve his tequilas with lime and salt: “The tequila’s too good.” Instead, he offers orange slices which create a “different chemical reaction”, opening up your back taste buds for a fuller, cleaner flavour. In this way and many others, Ginger Viking is broadening Blandford’s drinking horizons.
Alex Young’s Smokey and the Bandit
Named after the Burt Reynolds movie and inspired by our love of cider in Dorset, this drink has an amazing balance between ingredients that shouldn’t work together, but do.
Makes 1 glass
Johnnie Walker Black Label 50ml
lemon juice 25ml
egg white 1
Angostura bitters 4 dashes
strong dry cider 100-125ml, or till it tops the glass
lemon peel to garnish
Place all the ingredients, apart from the cider and lemon peel, in a shaker, shake hard and pour into a large whisky tumbler. Let the foam settle to a crisp line, then top up with the dry cider. Garnish with lemon peel.
Alex Young is the owner of Ginger Viking, 28 East Street, Blandford Forum DT11 7DR
