Smokelovers Bar

Smokelovers spent more than fifty years as a tobacconist next door to the Exeter Hotel, selling fourteen flavours of rolling tobacco and thirty two brands of cigar under fluorescent light. It closed in 2019 and sat empty until Hamish Tregeagle, who had spent a decade behind the Exeter's front bar, took the lease and reopened it as a wine and cocktail bar in December 2021. He kept the name and very little else. The fit out is timber clad and green inside, with window seats spilling onto outdoor tables that run straight into the Exeter's. Capacity is 100, the cocktails are classics with a smoky mezcal margarita in the mix, and the wine list favours small self distributing producers. The stated ambition was for the room to gradually become a dance floor as the night goes on, and that has held. DJs play till late, and Troy J Been has run a curated record fair here across soul, funk, disco, house, techno and hip hop.