It’s all in the family at Henry’s on Devine Street

For five years, Henry’s Restaurant & Bar has slowly but steadily built a rapport with its Shandon neighbors and Devine street contemporaries.

Owner Henry Lees and general manager Tommy Spires met during Lees’ tenure as Jake’s general manager, where Spires was hired as door manager. When Jake’s closed its doors (temporarily), Lees opened Henry’s. The Gamecock-loving bar has all the signed memorabilia a fan could want, including a piece of the goalpost cut up in front of Bar None from the September 9, 2000 “linchpin game” when USC beat GA in a much-needed victory. That loosely translates into the bar playing host to game day parties large and small, with televisions inside and out on the patio at every eye angle possible. If that’s not enough, there’s a retractable projection screen for added affect.

“We have a mix of everything from a normal business lunch crowd to a happy hour rush and then a full family dinner,” said Spires. “We get a bit of it all, and we’re really happy and blessed to have that. We have the greatest neighborhood around. We have families that come over with their adult children and then go home, and the kids stay and hang out.”

The bar’s easy flow of indoor-outdoor space and prime location next to Cantina 76 means each night, people old and new to the bar get to drink in its 16 beers on draft, along with high-end bourbons and rich selection of vodkas.

“We don’t have a cocktail menu,” said Spires. “We had one when we first opened, and no one seemed to respond to it. We sell a lot of draft beer and high-end bourbons like Pappy Van Winkle’s that people are looking for. But vodka is always king in this business. Everybody drinks vodka.”

So it should really come as no surprise that two of the three drinks featured were made from vodka. (The other used bourbon.) Henry’s bloody mary is as popular as its brunch menu, as the mix is made fresh in house. The “007” packs a James Bond-style wallop, comprised of Stoli orange vodka, a splash of triple sec, Sprite and a splash of cranberry juice.

And for those looking for an after-dinner cocktail, the “southern Russian” is simply Buffalo Trace bourbon and a bourbon-based creme liqueur. It’s their own invention, Spires said. A lot of customers have latched onto it, and it’s not hard to guess why. It’s delicious.

“It all moves pretty well,” Spires said of the bar options. “Anything we have that doesn’t move, we get rid of it and try something new. For example, we’ve got some rotating taps, so every couple weeks we have something new, but all the standards stay. And we’ve got a pretty good wine selection for being an American food burger place.”

Spires said he’s thankful for the five years of success they’ve had so far and is enjoying watching the growth of Devine Street.

“The more restaurants and bars we can get on Devine Street means it’s going to become less of a destination and more of just everyone being here,” Spires said. “I would love to see more restaurants and bars come to Devine Street.”

Dwaun Sellers, dsellers@thestate.com

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 4:30 AM with the headline "It’s all in the family at Henry’s on Devine Street."