Hotch is BACK! The official reunion party of Paceville’s hottest shooter bar has landed
Listen up, partygoers. This one’s for you! The famous Paceville Hotch bar is back for one night only, at 1926 Beach Club in Sliema on 24 May for the Official Hotch Reunion. All your favourite Hotch creations will be back on the night, and the best bit? Entrance is free!
Speaking to Luke Cassar, half of the Hotch duo, we went down memory lane to where it all began. “Hotch was my and my brother, Mark’s idea. The property belonged to our dad, who encouraged us to do something with it since it was just sitting pretty.” Luke says that the three Cassar men designed the space and installed everything themselves.
“Our original idea was to have a space that was a café by day and bar by night. It worked, but the bar took off so well that we decided to just focus on that, which was much more fun at the end of the day!” Hotch was also the only bar to have a self-DJ section. “It was sort of like a jukebox. People could just come up to the computer and DJ the night away.”
The famous ‘Hotchie’ and how it came to be
The Hotchie was the signature drink, and a wild one at that. “It was actually created the night before we opened. Mark, a friend and myself met the day before to experiment and see what comes out of it. We thought of a way to create the most layers in a shooter glass,” he says.
“Naturally, after many drinks, the hotchie came to be!” It’s quite the concoction, including sambuca, baileys, absinthe, aftershock red and banana syrup. “It’s an easy way to get drunk!” Luke admits.
They even made a video about it, and it has over a million views on YouTube! People from all over the world would ask for this famous Maltese drink.
Hotch’s crazy favourites
Once the Hotchie got so popular, Luke and Mark decided that Hotch would become a shooter bar, and began introducing some pretty wild shooters. “We had crazy names like the Flaming Lamborghini, Chuck Norris and Bin Laden. If were still open today we would have probably named one Dnegel!” We love that! Maybe they'll introduce the Dnegel drink at the reunion...
They also had something called the A-Bomb. “It was like a Jagerbomb but with a cascade of five different drinks and a pint of lager at the end, because why not? It was possibly our most dangerous one.” Hotch also created the Maltese Maniac which was their craziest shooter ever. “You’d snort the salt, squeeze the lemon in your eye and down the tequila. Only Malta’s craziest and bravest tried this one out!”
The reunion
Hotch had a great run, welcoming Paceville goers for seven years, but went on to close down in 2016. “Mark wanted to concentrate on photography and I wanted to move to Gozo to start a free-diving school. I miss working behind the bar, and I’d love to open another bar in Gozo someday.” #HotchGozo!
Till then, now's your chance to party the night away on 24th May at the Official Reunion Party. Put on your dancing shoes and get ready for a boozy night filled with your Hotch favourites!
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