Just when you thought Joburg’s bohemian student stomping ground Melville had finally given up on dive bars in favour of good-looking bistros and bright and airy cafes, along comes Smoking Kills Bar with a fresh injection of smokey, dive bar goodness to keep Joburg’s bar flies going. 

If you understand a ‘dive bar’ to be the kind of place where there’s a slot machine in the corner, a guy ready to sell you a dodgy car and the faint aura that a fight might break out at a moment's notice – don’t worry, this is not that place. Smoking Kills is artfully grungy, intimate and inviting.

As in any good dive bar, the bartenders have plenty of time to chat and there’s a certain sense of camaraderie amongst the eclectic mix of Melville-ites and Joburg visitors crowding the tiny space. If you enjoy conversation with your drinks you’ll be happy to find a lack of TVs (aside from the oh-so retro vintage contraption next to the bar beaming grainy reruns of cartoons) and a good mix of indie music softly keeping a tempo up in the background.

There's an astonishingly good selection of craft rums behind the counter (they count Ernest Hemingway as one of their all-time heroes) and then there’s also the marker pen graffiti tags scribbled on the tables, anarchist tags on the facebrick walls and that grizzly older guy in the corner moodily sinking tequilas on his own. Oh, and of course, the single most authentic dive bar ingredient, the smokers.