With the help of interior designer Martin Brudnizki, Fortnum & Mason has transformed its jaded Fountain Restaurant into a chic modern brasserie. Cocktail fanciers should head for a tomato-red leather high stool at its elegant marble bar. Acknowledging the room’s past as London’s first soda fountain, drinks include various soda spritzes, modern Rickies (Highballs that traditionally call for gin or whiskey, lime and carbonated water, here also made with Tequila, rum and brandy) and ice cream floats laced with liquor. Strictly for grown-ups, sophisticated sips include the house Hepple gin, dry vermouth and sherry Martini; Char Lady (a rum, elderflower, gooseberry and Darjeeling iced tea); and The Brummel (a Somerset cider brandy, quince and rose geranium Champagne cocktail, £12.50). Oysters, cheese plates and rarebits are among the bar bites, along with traditional savouries such as devils on horseback and Scotch woodcock (scrambled eggs on toast spread with Gentleman’s Relish).