Brighton duo turn classic car into gin bar

Aaron Burns and John Azzopardi have launched a mobile gin bar business from a 1968 Morris Minor car, available to hire throughout Surrey and Sussex in the UK.

Burns and Azzopardi launched the business, named Gin and Bear It, as a mobile gin pop-up serving drinks from the vehicle, which is named ‘Aubrey’.

Both gin enthusiasts, Burns and Azzopardi started the business in Brighton after purchasing the car and realising it would make a “good pull-out bar”.

The classic car is named after Aubrey Beardsley, a Brighton-based illustrator who worked with Oscar Wilde during his career.

Burns told the Brighton & Hove Independent: “I wanted to go against female-naming conventions for cars and Aubrey is a very peculiarly British name that is associated with Brighton that seemed to fit the car.”

The conversion process involved a few more modifications to Aubrey, including the addition of a roof rack which utilises vintage suitcases to store bar optics.

Local products and ingredients take prominence, with Brighton Gin as the main tipple, but the pair will also cater to any guests’ preferences.

Burns added: “We are a bar service so we provide what the customer wants, we are not about telling people how to drink their drinks. You tell us what you want and we will cater to that.”

The bar serves G&Ts using Fever-Tree or Fentimans tonics, as well as classic cocktails including Martinis, Gin Slings and Gin Fizzes.

This is not the only unusual gin bar pop-up, earlier this month a woman from Bath turned a old horse cart into a gin bar.