There's a bible and people sometimes find enlightenment, but The Veranda Bar and Terrace is probably not the kind of church your minister had in mind for worship.

This exclusive rum bar at the Elbow Beach Hotel is often referred to as "the rum church" because patrons page through a "rum bible" cataloguing the 110 different brands of rum on offer.

It also offers rum-inspired cuisine and fine cigars.

And if there is anything assistant maitre d' Zsolt Biro enjoys, it is making rum converts.

"Let's see what you've got, has to be one of my favourite phrases," said Mr. Biro. "Sometimes people say they are not rum drinkers, but Scotch drinkers or they like whisky.

"I find them a rum that suits them. For example, we even have a rum that tastes like grappa."

The Veranda Bar can also find food to suit many different tastes. A typical menu might include Baked Atlantic Blue Cod, White Bean & Chorizo Cassoulet paired with a mojito Atlantico, or Dark and Stormy ribs paired with a traditional piña colada or a traditional fish chowder with a Caribbean sombrero cocktail consisting of Porfidio rum and Blavod vodka.

Mr. Biro is a Hungarian from Transylvania. To get him to explain where he is from exactly takes a lot of discussion and historical explanation.

Essentially he is from a region along the border of Hungary and Romania which is part of Transylvania and has at various points in history belonged to either Hungary or Romania.

Asking him what village he is from requires the name to be written down in two different languages — Mezo Petli in Hungarian or Petresti in Romanian. "Bermuda is just one bus stop from Hungary," Mr. Biro joked when asked how he arrived in Bermuda. "I was working for a while on cruise ships.

"I was looking for something different. One of my colleagues was working at one of the hotels. He said why don't you come to Bermuda?"

At first, Mr. Biro wasn't even sure where Bermuda was located. All he knew was Bermuda shorts and the Bermuda Triangle.

Mr. Biro will soon have been working at the Elbow Beach Hotel for three years. Over dinner, he easily reels off the history of rum to the Veranda Bar guests.

"Rum comes from sugarcane," said Mr. Biro. "The sugarcane was originally from Indonesia. It was brought to North Africa and from North Africa it was brought to the world by Christopher Columbus in the late 1500s.

"The cane was crushed and boiled down to make sugar. Molasses was the sticky leftover from this method. When Molasses was mixed with water and left out in the sun it fermented."

Today, although the majority of rum is made in the Caribbean, especially Barbados, although it is also now made in many other countries.

"The rum bar is special because it is unique in Bermuda," said Mr. Biro. "We have more than 100 different rums in one house. That is a big thing. We have really unique rums.

"For example, we have Maximo, the best product of the Havana Club. That is the most precious rum of the house. We don't mention the price to the guests right away but it is $275 for one shot."

However, Mr. Biro has been told by patrons that $275 per shot for this particular rum is not that expensive. Some places in Europe sell it for 1,300 euros a shot. "A man recently sat down and went through the rum bible," said Mr. Biro. "He was very surprised that we had the Maximo. He said: 'I can't believe it. Give me one'. The price was removed because it has a special menu with it. So he had one.

"Then he asked for another. He was by himself. He ended up with six shots. He had three and he gave three others to strangers who were celebrating special occasions such as a honeymoon.

"He wasn't shocked by the price. We were worried more about it than him."

The Veranda Bar also offers a special edition of Mount Gay rum put out to celebrate 300 years of rum making in Barbados. "They are the oldest factory in Barbados," said Mr. Biro. "To celebrate they created a special limited edition of just 3,000 bottles. We have in our house four bottles. It was a good investment, because now it is worth four times more compared to when he bought it three years ago."

He said rum can be a good investment, if you know what you are doing. "Where I come from, a passion for wine is normal," said Mr. Biro. "When I go home the first thing that happens is that my father pours brandy or grappa or schnapps that he makes only for himself.

"Every house has its own vineyard. On the weekends you go out and take care of your grapes. It is a family place. That is how I grew up."

At home the family drink is wine, grappa or schnapps. "Grappa is more considered a spirit out of grapes, and brandy or schnapps is more like rum or apples," he said.

Mr. Biro completed a three-year hospitality course at a university in Budapest, Hungary. He is currently working on a hotel management and tourism course. "I am supposed to be there personally, but I made a deal with them," he said. "I said, just send me all the information and I will go home for exams. I am going home for another exam, soon."

He said he always takes a bottle of Bermuda Black Seal Rum back to Transylvania with him. "Black rum actually has a special meaning for me," said Mr. Biro. "When I was a child my mother would use rum essence in her cooking. It has a really strong flavour of the black seal rum. It doesn't contain too much alcohol. When I am having the black rum I always think of my mother's sponge cakes. They called it rum cakes but she could do it with walnuts or poppy seed."