The Stack occupies the top floor of an Edwardian-era house on 4th Avenue in Houghton — the former family home of a prominent Johannesburg lawyer, restored and reopened in 2017 with the upper floor turned into a library-themed cocktail bar. The room takes the library frame seriously: floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on three walls, leather banquettes, brass reading lamps, the cocktail menu catalogued in Dewey decimal. The right way to order is to pull a card from the catalog. Six cards from the current edition.
The Stack is small (around forty seats) and reservations are taken through the bar's website. The downstairs floor of the house runs as a restaurant; the bar is separate but the food can be ordered through to the upstairs. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 6pm to midnight.