The Cocktail Menus Shaking Up London
‘Cocktail’, except for the slightly anatomical reference, it’s got to be our favourite word. ‘Want to come for cocktails?’, ‘I’m just mixing a cocktail’, how great does that sound? Well, thankfully we live in quite possibly the perfect city to make the most of them. And with cocktail week around the corner (expect plenty of noise from us then), it’s cocktail menu unveiling season with plenty of new menus hitting London’s bars and restaurants. So here’s our roundup of some of the most enjoyable or just down-right intriguing.
The Perception at W London
Embrace autumn, not through walking in the parks but at The Perception Bar at W London with their new cocktail menu. Drinks include the Autummmmmm made with turmeric infused Hennessey and ginger beer; the All Things Nice made with cardamom infused Belvedere and Limoncello and the Stouts Honour with Slane Irish Whiskey, coffee, Guinness Black Lager Infusion, cinnamon and vanilla cream.
Where: 10 Wardour Street, Leicester Square, London, W1D 6QF, United Kingdom
Website: www.theperceptionbar.com
Rumpus Room, Mondrian London
Grey Goose, purveyors of the best vodka this side of Vladimir Putin’s drinks cabinet, have teamed up with one of our favourite bars to devise a cocktail list. Rumpus Room, topping off the so-cool-I-could-never-get-bored Mondrian Hotel have launched their Skyline Menu and inspired by the rooftop skyline views that help make the bar so memorable. Whether its the Gherkin, The Grater, The Shard or Big Ben the vodka-based drinks will delight you as much as the view.
Where: 20 Upper Ground, South Bank, SE1 9PD
Website: www.rumpusroomlondon.com
The Savoy
The Savoy’s Beaufort Bar has just launched the new menu, Music, Magic and Drama and not only is it a new offering a drinks but it is also a way to distinguish the bar from the American Bar also within The Savoy. The music section includes early evening drinks with light mixed drinks, wines and Champagnes. The Magic part will see drinks that use mystifying techniques in their construction , as well as liquids that have been manipulated on the way to the bottle through added botanicals, fermentation or fortification and Drama is all about dark, atmospheric drinks that take guests late into the evening.
Where: The Savoy, Strand, London, United Kingdom
Website: www.fairmont.com
Quaglino's
Climate change deniers avoid Quaglino’s for the forseeable. But the rest of us can get stuck in as they launch ‘The Science Of Sustainability’ next week. The cocktail men is designed to make a serious point about some of the most important global trends affecting us today. Split into three sections, ‘Past’ includes drinks like Let’s Be Clear and Roots designed to show us the human factors contributing to global warming. ‘Present’, with cocktails including The Q Project, deals with our awareness of the need for sustainability while (you guessed it:) ‘Future’ looks at new challenges we may face (slip the Tornado) and the technological and scientific advances that will create a more sustainable. Never has a cocktail menu been more worthy.
Where: 16 Bury Street, London, SW1Y 6AJ, United Kingdom
Website: www.quaglinos-restaurant.co.uk
Hotel Café Royal
As my father always says: ‘The old ones are always the best’, and this really does apply in the case of the Green Bar at Hotel Café Royal who have dug up their Café Royal Cocktail Book of 1937. Apparently something of a bible among bartenders, they’ve built a new menu around their historic menu, which goes back through the ages for a century’s ride through cocktails from the early twentieth century to the present day.
Where: 68 Regent Street, Piccadilly, W1B 4DY
Website: www.hotelcaferoyal.com
