It’s been a booming year for boozing in London, with the city now officially playing host to no less than five of the best bars in the world. As always, resident lounge lizard Keith Barker-Main has been selflessly sipping his way around the capital to ensure you get the best slosh for your dosh. We asked him to pick his favourites.
Original Sin, Stoke Newington (above)
Andy Bird and Alastair Burgess scored a big hit with Happiness Forgets in Hoxton Square. Without fanfare, they quietly followed up with a second bar, relying on word of mouth to draw discerning palates to their downplayed den. The look is butch and brooding, with a striking runway-length bar, booths and a bronze baize pool table. Check in here for hunky highballs and quality fixes that harness heritage French aperitifs.
Oriole, Smithfield (above)
Oriole is the follow-up to its owners’ award-winning Old Street speakeasy, Nightjar. The bar occupies a converted pub deep under Smithfield meat market and resembles a glam 1950s Beverley Hills late lounge-cum-supper club. Its raffish decor gets racy drinks to match, served in wacky vessels (sea shells, glass toadstools) and featuring arcane ingredients – iced Gouda and cork smoke, anyone?
Seymour’s Parlour at The Zetter Townhouse, Marylebone (above)
West End-based fans of The Zetter Townhouse need no longer cross town to enjoy its recherché rinses. Gussied up as the Victorian parlour of the eponymous ‘wicked Uncle Seymour’, the double-sized drawing room is inspired, we’re told, by Sir John Soane’s Museum. Appealingly presented, the dozen house signatures here are the result of a collaboration between Tony Conigliaro (of 69 Colebrooke Row and Bar Termini) and head barman Claudio Perinelli.
Silk Stockings, Dalston (above)
A younger sibling of Bethnal Green’s Satan’s Whiskers, Silk Stockings is a seamless fit with rapidly gentrifying Dalston Lane. Killer cocktails are dispensed in a vaguely retro, slightly Frenchified room decorated with tongue-in-cheek taxidermy. Bag a booth, or a stool at the smart bar, for a selection of spot-on classics. Stirs include Vieux Carré, and the Harvard (brandy, orange bitters and sweet vermouth); shakes cover the Tequila-based Silk Stockings: creamy and chocolatey, it’s sheer 10-denier joy.
The Vault at Millroy’s, Soho (above)
Pull up at the copper-topped bar and test-drive numerous whiskies from around the globe. Then push through a door disguised as a dusty bookcase to enter The Vault. Despite styling itself as a speakeasy, this raw-around-the-edges, cough linctus-brown cellar is the antithesis of a twee themed cocktail bar. Typical killer slugs from £9.50 include Smoking Gun (corn whiskey, Oloroso sherry, brown sugar and Earl Grey tincture in a smoked glass).
This article was published 23 December 2015