This Bar in Accra Makes Cocktails Using Only Local Ingredients

Though it may be niche – the drink counter parlour accommodates no more than 50 people at a time – this bar has a warm ambience with cover art portraiture and Ghana independence era-inspired design. The space recalibrates to fit Accra’s flexible night style, where half of the low traffic street is cut off and booze drums become high tables, and beer crates become piano stands.

Ryan and Kofi, brothers from the Owusu-Ansah family line, curate the tastes, sounds, colours and moments of The Republic Bar & Grill all year round. They spend their nights among the clientele passionately explaining to customers how the bar’s use of spices and herbs come together to make Ghana’s best cocktails. Here, you can’t differentiate an expat from a local, or a celebrity from a fan.

At peak times, the animated dance floor can see something approaching a Michael Jackson Thriller-esque scene, while on Wednesdays, the live music band nights on the intimate stage form the kaleidoscopic talk of the town. Here is where free expression roams, and creative sides are unleashed – if you want to hear what’s going on in Ghanaian music, this is the place.

The must for visitors coming to Accra, however, are the tantalizing cocktails. Mixed to meet the cozy African atmosphere and marry the ears to the soulful tunes, they offer visitors the chance to sample some of Ghana’s traditional ingredients in drinks form.

Among the delights on offer are the Kokroko cocktail, beersap (draft beer with bisap syrup) and ginger shots. The caipirinhas here are made from traditional palm spirits called akpeteshie, locally nicknamed ‘Kill Me Quick’. Of the traditional ingredients, Kofi proudly states that “If you look at our spirits, you will find not one single import. The base for all our cocktails [here] is locally-made sugar cane spirt – akpeteshie.”

If you’re in the market for some delicious dishes, then take a look at the food menu. With thick yam chips, domedo or fried pork, deep fried cassava chips and green shito sauce, it also has a special Moroccan breakfast on Saturday mornings, while its organic ‘Fire Go Burn You’ vegetable soup is spicy enough to balance the chilled drinks.