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Smoke & Bitters

Hiriketiya

• The Best Bar in Sri Lanka 2024

A scenic two-and-a-half-hour drive away from Sri Lanka’s capital city of Colombo, nestled unobtrusively within a coconut grove on the stunning Pehebiya Beach in Hiriketiya, is the island’s prized possession: Smoke & Bitters, a bar and smokehouse that has put this area on the global cocktail map. It’s a tropical paradise popular with locals and tourists for its easy-going vibe and great food and drink. The cocktail programme is committed to championing the region by staying focused on local spirits and ingredients, with house-made syrups and tinctures at the forefront of the menu. One of the few drinks remaining from the bar’s original menu, Pamuditha Aiya is a blend of rum and arrack, with a dash of absinthe, plus some Sri Lankan narang (a sour orange-like fruit).

The bar, headed by two of the island’s finest, Don Ranasinghe and Lahiru Perera, is testimony to Sri Lankan hospitality and warmth. The smokehouse menu is equally impressive and makes the place a weekend destination for many. The decor is sustainable and full of island character, with coconut tree pillars holding up antique ceiling tiles and hand-drawn motifs batiked onto fabric and coated with resin to form the surface of the tables. Smoke & Bitters is the kind of place you’ll want to keep going back to for the food, the drinks, the sunsets and the smiles.

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