tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52588776222149592562024-03-13T15:21:29.416-07:00London Bars: KEITH BARKER-MAIN Drinks London Dry (preferably Tanqueray 10)Unabridged reviews of London's latest bar openings.
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comBlogger497125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-33284376600128955362017-02-21T06:52:00.001-08:002017-02-21T06:52:13.238-08:00Aviary, Finsbury<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Brought to you by ETM group - whose other venues include The Botanist at Broadgate Circle, One Canada Square, The Well and the Jugged Hare - Aviary boasts a south-facing terrace with City skyline views. Set with sofas and high tables the (heated) sun-trap bar atop The Montcalm Hotel is an all-seasons shoo-in for demob-happy Square Mile folk - and a blessed escape from The Birds. On a Thursday night, a party of hoochy hens, clucked up on cocktails, shots and revelations about the groom's cock, like King Kong's dong sez she who will presently waltz down the aisle, a shameless schlong-sucking sinner, all butter-wouldn't-melt virgin in white, sends me scurrying outdoors, muttering darkly in my native Edimbra brogue "Goanna no zip it, hen?" In the clattery clamour of Aviary's retro New York penthouse-style bar, steamboats on Jennings Steam Boat</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> and ‘Deep and Dirty’ Roy and his Mango - sounds like a stripper but turns out to be a Johnnie Walker Black Manhattan - </span>the boozy birds' tinnitus-inducing trill is so shrill, it manages to drown out the DJ's 70s disco hairbrush diva mix<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">. On a subsequent visit, mo calm e at The Montcalm, we go for Jeff Goes South - an absinthe-rinsed tequila and beetroot blast - and Cherry Bomb Sour which my skybar sidekick likes but I'm less sweet on. Prices ain't steep by 5 star (it says) hotel standards but the Coravin system packs plenty of big ticket Bordeaux for those with pink banknotes to burn on a glass of vintage Margaux or Pauillac. Peckish? Go for s</span>almon shish and scallop dogs at this new perch.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">10th Floor, Montcalm Hotel, 22 - 25 Finsbury Square EC2A 1DX 3873 4060 <a href="http://www.aviarylondon.com/" style="font-size: 12px;">www.aviarylondon.com</a><span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-73168027846304981522017-02-20T14:44:00.000-08:002017-02-20T14:44:53.269-08:00Martello Hall, Hackney<div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Replacing seen-better-days pub, The London Fields, this cafe/ breakfast/ diner spot aimed at hot-deskers and E8 slackers morphs into a party bar as the day wears on. Strategically distressed decor suggests a low-heeled hostelry circa Queen of the Hackney Empire, Edwardian songbird Marie Lloyd. What’s to sing about at this mooted template for similar venues across the capital, are its local beers, Italian artisan wines on tap and a louche upstairs cocktail lounge. Many fixes depend on East London-produced booze, doctored with homemade tinctures, sherbets and cordials. Distilled on-site in small batches, Martello gin underpins a Bramble (£11) and a twisted G&T. We’re more for Mexican Negroni, Ginger Caipirinha Royale and miniatures to share - Punchy Cosmo for four at £20, for instance. Dissolute dandies drawn to disco DJ lates and live up and coming bands will flirt with the green fairy; absinthe from various producers drawn from Belle Époque fountains. Served in a groovy Brooklyn-style diner out back and in the ground floor bar, chow down on ‘humble comfort food’: Bologna-style dumplings (torta fritta); roasted squash and beetroot, ricotta, hazelnuts, beetroot pesto, mint and kale among ten edgy wood oven-fired pizza toppings, and meatballs, coppa, tomato, taleggio and oregano, king of the weekday po’boys. Weekend scran includes set £20 Sunday lunches and a £40 ‘Festa Italiana' blow-out. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">137 Mare Street E8 3RH 3889 6173 <a href="http://www.martellohall.com/">http://www.martellohall.com</a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-45335175026193230312017-02-20T14:37:00.000-08:002017-02-20T14:37:08.586-08:00Ritorno, Chelsea<div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There are over 40 cicchetti to choose from at this sophisticated King’s Road aperitivo bar, but the cocktail, with Paolo Viola (ex The Rivoli Bar at The Ritz) as kingmaker, is the undisputed ‘capo.’ Made with passion and flair, using Italian ingredients wherever possible - an interesting range of local gins has Dolomites-distilled Ginpilz, big on juniper, citrus and alpine herbals - local liqueurs and homemade tinctures, the range covers classics (barrel-aged Negroni); Milan’s current fetish, a vodka mule made with clementine and cinnamon and Campari bitters, and signatures designed to evoke various regions. At £13.50 for Liguria, - Caribbean rhum, Mediterranean falernum and lemon verbena liqueur - prices are more Sloane Square than World’s End (Ritorno’s locale) but all the ingredients are here to pull in the minted Made In Chelsea mafia: sleek design, Ibiza beats, a private dining room, super-sweet staff and, all-importantly, killer hot date lighting! Suggested food pairings include octopus carpaccio, pomegranate and mint sauce with Lady Giulia (Sabatini gin, raspberry shrub, green tea and mint air twist, one of many modern Bellini). Homemade tagliolini with mini meatballs; vitello tonnato; cream of broccoli soup with Sicilian anchovies on fried bread; crispy pork belly with basil oil; deep-fried dumpling with Culaccia ham (£5.50), and citrus strudel are other highlights. and at the risk of sounding like an old Dean Martin song, lunchtime panini and Italian brunch served each Sunday are further reason return to Ritorno.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">422 Kings Road SW10 0LQ 3301 6333 <a href="http://www.ritorno.co.uk/">www.ritorno.co.uk/</a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-36732588420117508262017-02-20T09:16:00.000-08:002017-02-20T09:16:12.342-08:00Ralph's Bar and Coffee, Mayfair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At his carefully stage-managed store on Regent Street, get sucked into Ralph Lauren’s universe of old money New England, More classy Kennedy clan Connecticut mansion than Trump Tower trashy, this equine-themed, deep tan leathery luxe presidential snug replicates The Polo Bar at RL's 5th Avenue Manhattan flagship. Post chukka chic sets the scene for all-day light breakfast - smoked salmon bagel, avocado toast etc; latte, cortado, macchiato, flat white et al; pastries and cold-pressed juices. Order any of a dozen wines by the glass with homemade soups, club sandwiches, salads, oysters, tuna tartare, crudités with ranch dressing, and meat and cheese platters followed by classic New York-style desserts. Well-tailored cocktails are always in fashion. We are drawn to a Gimlet made with Dorothy Parker gin that has ginger as well as the traditional recipe’s lime cordial. Despite its designer price tag, The Chairman - an absinthe rinsed tumblerful of WhistlePig rye, Cointreau Noir, maple syrup and, pomegranate - gets our vote. Itching to live the Lauren lifestyle? Ralph’s stemware and barware are all up for grabs, so long as you have the best part of £700 to splash on half a dozen lead crystal ‘Broughton’ martini glasses, that is.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">173 Regent Street W1B 4JQ 7113 7450</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> <a href="http://www.ralphlauren.co.uk/category/index.jsp?categoryId=92479331">http://www.ralphlauren.co.uk/category/index.jsp?categoryId=92479331</a></span></div>
Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-32668079471306889172017-02-20T09:04:00.001-08:002017-02-20T09:04:10.135-08:00Alpha Beta Bar, Finsbury<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When he’s not tending at, and to, his other bars (White Lyan, Dandelyan, The Fount at Selfridges), esteemed champion of cerebral, experimental peculiars, Ryan Chetyawardana (aka “Mr. Lyan”), is likely to be found at the standalone bar at chef Anna Hansen’s Modern Pantry off Moorgate. Brightly lit, all Scandi-style blonde woods with pressed flora, pine cones and other forest-foraged finds masquerading as art, its peninsular bar’s stools the only seating, the room suggests a Nordic airport bar circa early ABBA. What Alpha Beta (the name sounds like one of the group’s songs but relates to the title of the building it inhabits) lacks in louche lounge lizard appeal, however, is compensated by Mr L’s high flying botanical-inspired fixes that harness spices and ingredients integral to Hansen’s cooking; the subtle kick of a dhansak masala minced veal-filled omelette a highlight of a menu of appealing, affordable bar snacks. Killer combos include mini brioche buns stacked with smoked mussel, crab and guacamole paired with Iranian Gimlet - both ideas flavoured with dried down Iranian lime; and crab rarebit doughnut with squid ink and the same Urfa chilli salt used in homemade bitters that inform Hellfire, a sophisticated Wild Turkey bourbon old fashioned sweetened with honey. Twisted aperitivo hour classics - an Aperol spritz prepared with black moscato and hibiscus - and interesting hi-balls - Byrrh with San Pellegrino’s bittersweet orange cola-esque soft, Chinotto, and Amer Picon mixed with Meantime Pale Ale, an Anglo take on the French farmer’s <i>vieille école</i> fave - are further reason to head tot Hansen and Lyan’s commendable collaboration.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">at The Modern Pantry, 14 Finsbury Square EC2A 1AH 3696 6965 <a href="http://www.themodernpantry.co.uk/" style="font-size: 12px;">www.themodernpantry.co.uk</a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-86688527800479500772017-02-20T08:54:00.002-08:002017-02-20T08:54:42.930-08:00Bobby Fitzpatrick, West Hampstead<div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Cheesier than Laughing Cow cubes and pineapple pieces on cocktail sticks served at Abigail’s Party, the new gaff from the guys at Coin Laundry is stuck in the same Formica and shag pile bad taste time-warp as Mike Leigh’s iconic play, the mid-70s. In a lurid lounge and downstairs living room furnished in the sort of curated kitsch Corrie’s Jack and Vera Duckworth coveted, or In a tacky full-scale kitchenette ripped out of a ghastly Grimsby granny flat circa Little Jimmy Osmond, rip into rum-laced rinses. Bobby’s first love is Alison Mahoney (a spicy Havana 3-y-o lime and ginger tease) and on a Tequila tip, we’re torn between tropical fruity Michelle Ma Belle or Caribbean carnival crush, Sexy Ting. Club together for gin and pisco puncheons to share, shooters and hoochy slushies from a tacky bar straight out of a Willesden working mens club from back when real men wore Brut and Bri-Nylon briefs. Snack on prawn cocktail, deep-fried garlic mushrooms, chicken nuggets or potato skins loaded with bacon and sour creams. More filling still, there’s pizza topped with lamb doner and garlic sauce,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">chicken tikka, or ‘the full English’; Red Leicester cheeseburger, and rum baba or banana pie with a side of Barry White and The Bee Gees.</span></div>
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273 West End Lane NW6 1QS 7433 1989<span style="font-size: 12px;"> <a href="http://www.bobbyf.co.uk/">www.bobbyf.co.uk</a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-36412906760441878392016-11-26T09:10:00.002-08:002016-11-26T09:10:58.640-08:00Spiritland, King's Cross<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Following an initial residency at Angela Hartnett’s Merchants Tavern, Paul Noble, Patrick Clayton-Malone and Dominic Lake take their music appreciation concept to the next level with this classy King’s Cross audio and record store/ listening lounge/ cafe/ bar/ chill-out. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">With the drop-dead cred' likes of Severino, Andy Weatherall, Patrick Forge, Ian Dewhirst and Jarvis Cocker playing vinyl on </span>its peerless bespoke-built analogue system,<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Spiritland is manna to music lovers whose lugs and frontal lobes embrace all genres and eras. Food is overseen by Owen Kenworthy (Blueprint Cafe, ex-Brawn). Go early for morning coffee and pastries and NYC-London brunch staples followed by an all day menu that might typically offer chicken soup with matzo balls, salt beef or pesto caprese sandwich, aubergine parmigiana, a daily pasta dish, salads, sausage roll, charcuterie and cheeses. Choose from three dozen wines from £25 (Southern Rhône red) and Thornbridge Chiron on tap among other local and imported craft beers. £10 cocktails include Sakamoto Sorbet (Brooklyn Gin, limoncello, basil and Belsazar white vermouth) and Deez Nuts, a Ron Abuelo 7, smoked rosemary, toasted pecan and bitter chocolate jazzy old fashioned to accompany Ella, Billie, Dinah and the Blue Note boys.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Granary Square, 9 - 10 Stable Street N1C 4AB<span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span><a href="http://spiritland.com/" style="font-size: 12px;">spiritland.com </a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-88982808949993609952016-11-26T08:52:00.002-08:002016-11-26T08:52:56.106-08:00Zelman Drinks, Finsbury Park<div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Gagging for a gargle, stuck in cattle truck conditions on the Victoria Line? Alight at Finsbury Park where the crew behind Burger and Lobster, Goodman, Beast and Zelman Meats ( Soho and Harvey Nichols) have opened a lo-fi loafers’ lounge at what was The Silver Bullet (an indie music venue that, from December 2016, is set to rock Seven Sisters). Post-industrial distressed decor and an on-point mash-up of rocky, retro, funk, electro and Balearic beats pumped through a kick-ass sound system set the scene for heritage cocktails such as Penicillin, Negroni Sbagliato and Southside Royal (£7.50) and East 8 Hold-Up; the latter, a vodka Aperol, pineapple and passion fruit modern London classic conceived by Kevin Armstrong (Satan’s Whiskers/ Silk Stockings) after his chum was mugged while in full flow, so to speak, late one night in Hackney! On a sweet tip, Dublin Brace Up calls for stout, whiskey, condensed milk and gingerbread syrup. Alternatively, order wines on tap and various Beavertown brews. Korean-style hot wings, mac’n’cheese, sliders, spit roasted pork belly with cheesy grits, or bitterballen (Dutch meatballs) with mustard are what to scoff as Finsbury Park parties until as late as 4am at the weekend.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">5 Station Place, N4 2DH 7842 8523 <a href="http://zelmanmeats.com/" style="font-size: 12px;">http://zelmanmeats.com/</a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-39891836762574539792016-11-25T06:19:00.001-08:002016-11-25T06:19:28.351-08:00Sakagura, Mayfair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXs31zvjlCg/WDhHWHdEgPI/AAAAAAAACvg/1hY4T3_CWs8tncr4yYRcn5BJT84PuNZgwCLcB/s1600/IMG_2665.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXs31zvjlCg/WDhHWHdEgPI/AAAAAAAACvg/1hY4T3_CWs8tncr4yYRcn5BJT84PuNZgwCLcB/s400/IMG_2665.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The Land of the Rising Sun’s national tipples of choice, saké - essentially wine made by fermenting polished rice - and its stronger cousin shochu - principally distilled from barley, buckwheat, sweet potato or sugar cane as well as from rice - are very much a niche taste among London drinkers. At this chic new Japanese restaurant, knowledgeable (Italian) staff enlighten you on the finer points of the drinks</span>’<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> properties, heritage and culture. </span></span>Sakagura (literally, ‘saké cellar’) stocks <span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">over 60 of the country</span>’s <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">finest saké, shochu and umeshu (plum wine) available by the glass, carafe or bottle at up to a sobering £1,000. Matured in cedar casks, creamy-sweet gekkeikan tarusaka, entry level at around £5.50 a glass, works well with assorted sahsimi, one of various bar snacks such as Wagyu beef, fresh velvety tuna tartare and tender chicken and burdock root skewers. Served with daikon (radish) and konbu dashi (savoury) </span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">dipping sauce, vegetable tempura that is dense and bland strikes the only dud note. The Japanese are also mad keen on whisky; a dozen or so indigenous distillations the base, here, for various highballs and well-balanced cocktails. At £13, Whisky Risky (Hakushu Distiller’s Reserve, saké, green Chartreuse, mint and yuzu bitters, pictured below) is </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">a risk well worth taking. Saké, rather than gin, in a barrel-aged Nipppon-style Negroni makes for a lighter take on the Italian original.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Japanese craft beers and spontaneous origami demonstrations are further reason to prop up Sakagura’s elegant destination bar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">8 Heddon Street W1B 4BS 3405 7230 <a href="http://www.sakaguralondon.com/"> www.sakaguralondon.com </a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-73636453473377634272016-11-17T04:14:00.000-08:002016-11-18T08:45:33.154-08:00Samarkand, Fitzrovia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I first visited Moscow when it was the capital of The Soviet Union. A grey, grindingly grim gulag populated by surly, downtrodden paupers in naff Nylon tracksuits, it felt only marginally to the left of Jeremy Corbyn's vision for a more egalitarian Britain. In terms of diet (ubiquitous fried sturgeon tougher even than Nicola, Tsarina of Scotland), for a foodie, Moscow's only saving grace was its limitless stock of precious foreign exchange-earning luxury vodkas. It was only heroic intake of said bad boys that stopped my balls falling off en route to the Bolshoi whose thieving cloakroom babushkas would have happily sent a mate and me, like Zhivago and Lara, back out into the frigid windswept wasteland without the designer coats we had consigned to their care - cue a Cold War stand-off that saw World War III only narrowly avoided. Lately, Eastern Europe's signature tipple has been marginalised in London bars. But as the capital reaches 'peak gin,' I increasingly crave the clean hit of a textbook vodka martini.<span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At the mezzanine bar at Samarkand, billed as</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> London’s only Uzbek destination restaurant, there are over 100 premium brands</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">from either side of the old Iron Curtain. But it's Russia that runs the show (natch). </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Served on a silver platter with a spoonful of caviar, a squid ink vodkatini uses </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Beluga Noble - entry level among a sterling selection that Russia's chest-puffing potato-faced Prez, Putin, can be truly proud of...at prices that would make Roman Abramovich wince. The mark of a killer martini, </span>Samarkand's acts as liquid cocaine to the brain. <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Sipped neat from delicate porcelain cups as custom dictates, a cedar nut-enhanced Siberian winter wheat vodka called Mamont, poured from a bottle shaped as a mammoth’s tusk, is another horny beast. Less obvious vodka producer nations’ finest specimens also bear investigation, however: D1 English potato vodka; Chase Islay Whisky Cask Aged Vodka from Scotland's Laphroaig distillery, and American maize-based organic Prairie vodka, not least among them. Other bases are available across a range of cocktails and service is a sweet as Sauvelle Crafted; a creamy rich vanilla and cherry blossom French wheat vodka distilled in a microbrewery in Cognac at £119 per bottle. </span>What snacks we try - smoked aubergine puree and skewers of yellow fin tuna and flaccid yellow courgette with a bland sour cream dip - don't have me rushing to add a trip to Tashkent to my bucket list, unfortunately. Might that be why, on a Thursday evening in busy Fitzrovia, Samarkand is as deserted as the Steppes in January?<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">33 Charlotte Street WT 3RR 3871 4969 <a href="http://www.samarkand.london/">www.samarkand.london </a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-13876782230787338102016-11-15T09:35:00.000-08:002016-11-15T10:01:31.833-08:00Fox Bar, Brixton<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This new Brixton booze bunker is in Piano House, a creative hub in a converted Victorian warehouse. I remember this dive from my one previous visit when it was Substation South, owned by Erik Yu (Opium/ Burlock/ 68 and Boston). With my fashion show producers hat on, I'd hired its DJ, Martin Confusion, to develop a trip-hop soundtrack for a client - Katharine Hamnett, if my memory serves me well. What I do distinctly remember was rocking up at the club to discuss ideas, only to find his gig was a raunchy gay uniform night. Not much was achieved: well, you try concentrating, surrounded by 'squaddies' in the noddy, hard at it on manoeuvres that are far from Geneva conventional! Having been totally transformed (and doused in bleach, I trust), the sometime sex-pit now hosts<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Soho House’s latest whizz; a drinking den inspired by the old taverns of Chicago, in which city the same group’s original Fox Bar is based on traditional English taverns, I'm told. Confused? Here’s the 411. Fox Bar sits in a narrow arch next door to a branch of Soho House’s Chicken Shop roll-out. There’s barely room for thirty souls in what feels like a sanitised take on the sort of joint Frankie Machine - the fly by night hero of Chicago novelist Nelson Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm - might have drunk at with his dissolute buds before graduating to injecting his veins with something a little stronger than Banana Penicillin, one of the drinks on a list worked up by Soho House’s global creative bar manager, Tom Kerr. Other classy £8 fixes (pun intended) that might have been less detrimental to Frankie’s health than his class A intake include Old Pal (a Rittenhouse rye Negroni), Southside Collins, Boulevardier and Nitro (espresso) Martini, the latter two on tap. Chuck in chicken bits and craft beers; Brixton’s baddest will be quickly hooked.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Piano House, 9 Brighton Terrace SW9 8DJ Facebook Fox-Bar-Brixton</span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-86791761612048072602016-11-14T14:04:00.003-08:002016-11-14T14:04:36.763-08:00Every Cloud, Hackney<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Manhattan Project, the </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">cocktail consultants</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> that recently made a splash at Hawaiian joint POND (before the restaurant's fortunes took a dive and its owners shut up shop), have taken the plunge, branching out on their own just off Hackney’s main drag, Mare Street. Head honcho Felix is all for “strong drinks, low lights and good times” at his sweet, wee pineapple-themed bar-ette where “creeps” are persona non grata he says. Every Cloud’s silver lining is a list of off-the-wall innovations from £8 such as a 'Champagne Daiquiri’ that contains no actual Champagne, preferring instead lab-created acidic fizz that tastes like the real thing to some. A gin, strawberry and Bahamian bitter bark spirit twist on a classic Negroni is described as “somewhere between vanilla Coke and cough syrup” which sounds a bit too close for comfort to my tweenage attempts at cocktail-making when Night Nurse, Vimto and a miniature of vodka nicked from the local Co-Opleft me puking into the porcelain. Equally off the wall Irish p</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0px;">oitín potion,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Blue Bán Group, is touted as the liquid equivalent of Violet Beauregard, the obnoxious brat in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory who is juiced by oompa loompas after she morphs into a giant blueberry. Blimey!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">11 Morning Lane E9 6ND 07843 613628 <a href="http://everycloudbar.com/">everycloudbar.com </a></span></div>
Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-9503807059939583302016-11-14T13:39:00.000-08:002016-11-14T13:39:00.454-08:00Three Sheets, Dalston<div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GA5Lbq_c3ps/WCormMu3qsI/AAAAAAAACuU/HMDNymk8CMEv7wlwO2vk2lkEMOG5JsN-wCLcB/s1600/20161110-PB103166-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GA5Lbq_c3ps/WCormMu3qsI/AAAAAAAACuU/HMDNymk8CMEv7wlwO2vk2lkEMOG5JsN-wCLcB/s320/20161110-PB103166-1.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Set up by Mancunian brothers Noel and Max Venning, the latter a protégé of Tony Conigliaro, this austerely decorated, pint-sized lounge reminds me of Edward Hopper’s 1942 oil, Nighthawks. A few stool pigeons and and a couple of love birds are all it takes to fill the place. The bros’ well-judged drinks rely on the contents of a solitary shelve’s dialled-down supply. Short but long on interesting ideas, the cocktail list is refreshed each month according to season. Autumn's glory ( £8) comes in the shape of lightly floral Foraged Martini (pictured below): served wet with a tart edge, it calls for Beefeater gin, home-infused ‘leaf vermouth’ and a sprig of gypsophila. Other hits include a light take on classic gin job, French 75; the Vennings' recipe made with verjus, Moscato wine and orange flower carbonated and pre-batched. Pear And Pastis (it is what it says) is helped along by a slug of Reyka vodka and a hint of lemon. Plans B & C, should you be remotely interested, are a trio of Italian wines and Wiper and True IPA or Harbour Pils. The lovely local micro-bar is open in the daytime for coffee and cake or a hair of the dog should you have found yourself three sheets to the wind last night.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">510b Kingsland Road E8 4AE <a href="http://www.threesheets-bar.com/">www.threesheets-bar.com</a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-61796303919217032042016-11-14T11:02:00.000-08:002016-11-15T10:04:57.493-08:00MNKY HSE, Mayfair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">For a taste of the Mayfair lifestyle at a fraction of the cost, book a space in the bar in the bowels of MNKY HSE (BYO vowels) - a ‘new breed of dining experience’ that heroes modern Latin American cuisine. Set to a FNKY MNKY soundtrack that gets a lot lot louder as the evening progresses, this glossy gaff recalls the sort of early Noughties NYC nightspot Naomi Campbell, </span>trailing paparazzi in her wake,<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> might have plagued while the Sex and the City ladies, mainlining martinis, held a wake for yet another failed relationship. Dress as Naomi or Carrie's mucker Samantha's MUCH younger sisters; MNKY HSE is a catwalk already strutted by 'porn heiress' India Rose James; Pips Taylor; Weegee wailer Talia Storm; Kyle De Vole (Rita Ora's stylist, apparently); Henry Conway (a party fixture dubbed "Mince Charming" by a sometime mate of mine) and male mannequin </span>Harvey Newton-Hadyon<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> - the sort of fluttery young things drawn, as moths to a Vapona Strip, </span>to Mayfair boîtes such as this<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">. Model muddles and mixes on a South of the Border tip include a coffee martini - made, Jalisco-style, with Jaral de Berrio Mezcal, mole bitters, dark chocolate and rose dust - and a fine £13 passion fruit spume-layered Negroni manqué that calls for Mezcal Gin Joven. Ron Millonario XO Reserva Especial fix, MNKY Business (top left) - a subtle, smoky rum old fashioned - is flamboyantly produced from a glass flask shrouded in mist and much hot air from its maker about “the concept.” Another signature is called Taking The Pisco: cue Ace of Spades Gold Brut Champagne, for those (rappers, footballers, hedgies, pretentious pricks) happy to drop £850 a bottle or £1,450 on a magnum of bling-bauble bubbles. For those with more sense than money, house (</span>Argentine) white<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> is yours for more modest £26.</span> Baltic blondes with Rylan Clark glow-in-the-dark teeth - veneereal disease is sweeping London - will be relieved: t<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">asty, teeny taco-ettes and fiddly fishy bites won’t interfere with the contours of a body-con black dress... but they may batter a bloke's Barclaycard. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10 Dover Street W1S 4LQ 3870 4880 <a href="http://www.mnky-hse.com/">www.mnky-hse.com</a></span></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-91631000978232917762016-11-12T10:08:00.000-08:002016-11-12T10:08:29.510-08:00Burlock, Marylebone
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This new basement rum room -previously naff nightspot Noir - across the street from Selfridges back door was set to be called The Plantation. But that was before pressure groups
piped up: "Commemorate places where slaves suffered? How very dare Yu? That's 'Yu' as in Eric, the bar's personable egalitarian owner whose other joints include inscrutable Chinatown den, Opium, and 68 and Boston on Greek Street. In our prescriptive PC world,
must we now also boycott Plantation rum? for that's the base for Burlock’s creamy, white, minty Grasshopper, one
of various cracking Caribbean and Creole classic cocktails whose names are - purely by coincidence rather than by some dark design, I wager - </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">equally controversial. Take '</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rum-Ember' The Maine; a Mezan XO rum twist on the 1930s whiskey
classic whose unbastardised title references the sinking of a ship, the USS Maine, that proved to be the flashpoint for the Spanish-American
War in which thousands perished. Or Canchanchara, a white rum antecedent of 20s
gin job Bee’s Knees, a drink invented to fortify locals throughout Cuba's Ten Year War
with Spain. Whatever! In Yu's darkened 30s Havana parlour whose decor was presumably bought on E-Bay </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">from Fidel Castro’s granny,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> lock,
stock and ahem, 'plantation' shutters (as flogged in the Mail on Sunday magazine, so utterly PC clearly) punters, oblivious to such PC considerations, dive in to fishbowls and jiggle to fat funky beats played by DJs who will doubtless risk having that po-faced Dame, Chami Chakrabarti, and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pontificating left-wing puffball</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Diane Abbott down on them like a ton of bricks if they so much as reach for a track by 70s soul brothers, Slave.</span></span></span></div>
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<!--StartFragment--><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">31 Duke Street W1U 1LG 7935 3303</span></span> <a href="http://www.burlock.co.uk/">www.burlock.co.uk</a></span></span><!--EndFragment--></div>
Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-2901574094559136792016-06-03T07:01:00.001-07:002016-11-12T10:10:25.564-08:00Smith and Whistle, Mayfair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Here’s yet another bar with yet another tall tale to tell about heroes and villains a<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> twee theme that</span>’s much <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">more imaginatively executed at the likes of Evans & Peel, Mr. Fogg's and Uncle Seymour</span>’s Parlour than at<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> this glitzy, soulless</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> take on a Jazz Age cocktail lounge.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Apparently, inspired by fictitious 1920s sleuth Smith - a poor man’s Poirot - and gentleman/ vagabond Whistle, it</span>’s th<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">e first of the hotel’s public spaces to be refurbished. Let’s hope owners Starwood/ Sheraton Hotels make a better fist of the potentially glorious Palm Court Bar than they have here. Bar food includes devilled whitebait; pork brawn and piccalilli and beer-battered fish fingers, chips and mushy peas (£10.50). Chapel Down vineyard’s Curious Brew ales on tap, plus a selection of good Scottish beers, will give tourists a flavour of Britain’s craft ale revolution. Jotted down on gumshoe Smith’s leather-bound notepad, </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">£10 cocktails </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">include Mayfair Mystery (Absolut, Jägermeister, Sezchuan pepper honey, elderflower and chilli)</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">. Apparently, Smith and Whistle </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">would occasionally meet up here on the sly and trade tip-offs. With </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">1920s gin, lemon and honey classic, Bee’s Knees, incorrectly listed as 'tequila, goats cheese, pork crackling syrup and plum wine’ </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> it looks like </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">the crim' gave the cop a bum steer!</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Maybe it should be renamed Smith & Wesson, a reference to the weapon used to put the joker that dreamed up this trite tosh out of his misery.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Park Lane Hotel Piccadilly W1J 7BX</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="http://www.sheratonparklane.com/" style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14px;">http://www.sheratonparklane.com </a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-81441119916921891822016-04-10T10:02:00.001-07:002016-04-11T04:35:45.457-07:00By Appointment Only, Liverpool Street<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-92228_op_II/VwfZHE7TkFI/AAAAAAAACsw/FHI6ypUpSGcDMcjwMuJ7Rh7yc2pakImqw/s1600/12974350_1293452647338151_3695981214172856153_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-92228_op_II/VwfZHE7TkFI/AAAAAAAACsw/FHI6ypUpSGcDMcjwMuJ7Rh7yc2pakImqw/s320/12974350_1293452647338151_3695981214172856153_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dwarfed by Bishopsgate's rampaging glass towers, </span>all ornate Ottoman tiling and Moorish styling with additional help from Russell Sage Studios, I'm told, By Appointment Only is set in a rare beauty I'm keen to revisit - </span><span style="font-family: "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;">The Victorian Bath House</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. Previously a nightclub, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">after a prolonged dry spell, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">heavenly hammam</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> has reopened as a bar-cum-events space. Tonight, the only soaks in evidence are fellow hooch Hoovers, ministered to by a liveried 'butler' in a make-believe Belle Époque gentlemen's club. It's a hackneyed theme that's elswhere been done well - at Mr. Fogg's of Mayfair - and badly... at far too many others... like the ludicrous lair that was House of Wolf on Islington's Upper Street. I invite a PR/ event organiser chum along for an evening that should be more full of Eastern promise than a box of Fry's Turkish Delight. On arrival, we're offered complimentary coupes of fancy fizz. Nice touch. Sadly, it's as watery and flat as The Fens and is to Champagne, what some hopeless howler on Britain's Got F***-All Talent, is to Aretha Franklin. Alarm bells ring. Unfazed, our butler scuttles off and reappears with what I take to be Prosecco. "Are you ready for your cocktail adventure?' he beams. We are. Problem is, nothing on a fanciful list floats our boats. Peanut butter rum and berry juice mix? Nope! Wash, Rinse Repeat? Sounds like a root canal session at the dentist's. Classic Shambles? (I quote) 'A couple of apple pies from our neighbours at McDonalds, dropped into a vat of Somerset Brandy.' Well, would YOU? Nothing is winking at me. I'll have to go off menu.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Me: "Might I try your home-infused quince and blue cheese gin... in a dry martini, please?" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Butler: "urm....gin in a martini glass? I don't think we can do that. But we can make you a classic cocktail if you prefer." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Me (discombobulated): "What could be more classic than a classic gin martini?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Butler: "Vodka and lemonade? Whisky and Coke?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well that's sure to stretch those 'expert mixologists' here to 'delight your palate with largesse and liberation' (sic). </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At their lightly stocked, panto set bar that recalls a display fixture at the Cowdenbeath </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Co-Op</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">circa the Coronation and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rationing books, the experts are at work.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> PR pal settles for rosemary and lavender-infused gin and tonic. Poured from a Tanqueray bottle, served With Fever-Tree tonic water, it's overpoweringly perfumed and strident on the nose.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "I'd rather drink gin and Vim!" she grimaces. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I opt for the 'modern sophistication' that is the STFH - aka 'Salted Toffee From Hipflask' (sic). Pre-made, served from a hot water bottle-sized silver flask, it is presented with something lumpy, brown and wrinkly on a glass plate (pictured). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Eeew! That looks like a specimen diseased adenoid" announces my date just as I'm on the point of popping into my gob what turns out to be a dried date, the ideal partner to my drink..apparently. Having spent the previous two hours sampling great single malt cocktails at excellent nearby new whisky bar, Black Rock, this recherché rinse is, to put it mildly, a bit of a let-down. To my tastes, STFH is Simply Too F****** Horrid for words. But I'll try. Imagine scotch infused with Werther's Originals and the melted contents of the not-so-select selection box your great-auntie Marjorie gave you for Christmas 1969! 'So good, it's probably illegal' trumpets the menu. 'Should be!' tut tuts date reaching for her coat. Not keen to prolong our 'by appointment' disappointment at The Bath House, she's after an early bath at home. The following day, I scrutinise the menu's florid small print. "All our house infusions are presided over by Mr. PJ Hobbs who tinkers and plays as our 'Booze Mechanic'". On last night's showing, they might as well have hired Kevin Webster, Coronation Street's resident boozy mechanic. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Unless new owners Camm and Hooper - the brains also behind Tanner and Co of Bermondsey Street - up their game dramatically, I won't be diving in again any time soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7 Bishopsgate EC2M 3TJ 3813 7114</span><br />
<a href="http://www.victorianbathhouse.co.uk/">http://www.victorianbathhouse.co.uk</a><br />
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<br />Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-25210613421780814612016-03-15T14:11:00.000-07:002016-11-12T10:11:34.256-08:00K Bar at The Kensington, South Kensington<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UrPOzNgiVjs/Vuh58Hz6ObI/AAAAAAAACsY/crqvb7r8EE0bwXYHQsDyBNxUuyfYnoTxQ/s1600/K-Bar-The-Kensington-hotel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UrPOzNgiVjs/Vuh58Hz6ObI/AAAAAAAACsY/crqvb7r8EE0bwXYHQsDyBNxUuyfYnoTxQ/s200/K-Bar-The-Kensington-hotel.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It may be of London’s most </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">desirable </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">districts (unless Dalston is your natural home) but South Kensington is curiously low on swanky hotel lounges with sufficient clout to pull in well-heeled cosmopolitan locals. Opulently revamped, the rebranded K Bar at the SW7 flagship of Irish hoteliers, The Doyle Collection, fills the void. All honey tone woods, copper shimmer, grouse moor greens and divine art deco bronze doors - salvaged from Dublin’s GPO and riddled with bullet marks from the 1916 Easter Uprising according to one of the bar's Blarney-kissed boys' spiel - K Bar is a luxe looker, high on charm, comfort and cracking cocktails. Highlights include a Trois Rivières sweet daiquiri (£10) and a Knob Creek rye, Cherry Heering and Applejack-based tribute to the Singapore Sling. Calvados and rhubarb bitters inform K Bar’s twist on a classic Champagne Cocktail. Créme Brûlée Martini is sheer liquid sin. Order wine from £5.50 with suitably Kensington snacks from the hotel's grown-up restaurant, adjacent and, held hostage by emerald plush upholstery, stay for ‘classic or healthy’ afternoon tea served until 5pm. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">109 - 113 Queen’s Gate SW7 5LT 7589 6300</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;"> <a href="https://www.doylecollection.com/">www.doylecollection.com</a></span></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-382291910041711542016-03-15T13:39:00.003-07:002016-03-15T13:50:07.242-07:00Gallery Bar at Ace Hotel, Shoreditch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">OFF übercool </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ace Hotel’s </span>vlogger-<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">magnet lobby - ‘a place to congregate, socialise, work or wind down’ (while you wait to be spotted by an Italian photographer casting the next big budget campaign to feature Made in Londra 'real people') your inner hipster will gravitate towards its Gallery Bar; a post-nuclear cubbyhole in which to spend ‘a long afternoon of lap-topping', sipping cocktails until well past midnight and ‘noshing snacks.’ Buttermilk fried chicken burger, and crispy fried cauliflower are the sort of stomach liners to load up on before ripping into a 100-strong whisky range that ain't for wusses that buy into Davy Boy Beckham-for-hire's Haig-Club nonsense. Scandinavian, Indian, Japanese and Australian single malts and Taiwanese cask strength rarities take on the tartan army; Tomatin 30 one among a selection of Scotland’s finest on a list that’s also big on premium gin, rum and Tequila. ‘Rogue afternoon’ drinks involve Aussie Regal Rogue vermouth served (white) with yellow Chartreuse and tonic, say, at £6.50. A seasonally evolving selection of after-dark vamps might include Sucker Punch (Bulleit, Benedictine, lemon, pineapple and kombucha tea) or Simply Red (pictured), a Glenmorangie and balsamic strawberry old fashioned that’s decidedly more current than Mike Hucknall. And this being Ace Hotel, you're a sashay away from another ace spot</span> with a decent bar:<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span>Hoi Polloi, David Waddington's 1950's American-style dining room that is as sleek and well put-together as Eve Marie-Saint and as camp as Cary Grant in North By Northwest.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">100 Shoreditch High Street E1 6JQ 7613 9800</span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><a href="http://www.acehotel.com/london%C2%A0" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px;">www.acehotel.com/london </a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-58476365303190120612016-03-11T04:26:00.000-08:002016-03-11T04:26:18.180-08:00The Prince Alfred, Little Venice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When its original elaborate plasterwork ceiling caved in, the historic Alfred’s Grade II listed status obliged it be painstakingly restored. Taking this misfortune as their cue, owners Young’s treated their 160-year-old working museum to a major refurbishment. This, the handsomest of pub’s former Formosa Dining Room has been transformed into a convivial haute Victorian English brasserie; its coal cellars imaginatively transformed into plushly appointed vaults for cosy private dining. Fluted iron columns; Venetian windows; frosted glass a gogo; stunning ornate tiles; a dramatic mahogany horseshoe bar; Lilliputian saloons; snob screens; dentilled cornices: there’s so much to admire at this bobby dazzler of a boozer, the food and drink almost plays second fiddle. Order Young’s and Camden ales on draught; Beavertown and Hammerton among the craft bottled beers; sloe gin negroni, Chivas sour, spritzes and old fashioneds, and familiar wine appellations from £20 - £40. Sandwiches and salads are available during the day along with sharing boards, trad bar snacks and a classic British menu that’s served until late in the evening. A typical meal might start with ham hock, wild mushroom and truffle terrine or a hearty winter soup followed by crabmeat-encrusted salmon in a mussel broth, beef and bone marrow pie with buttered greens, or kale, squash, fig and goat’s curd and quinoa salad and sticky toffee pudding or a peach, berries and lemon and coriander meringue mess to finish. Rock up for Sunday roast but be sure to book ahead!</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dg1gVIlojfs/VuK4vuiwAhI/AAAAAAAACrw/lLqvaGcT6EgWZ3z2Sv8ayFNuEEfkdP29Q/s1600/theprincealfreddining_7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dg1gVIlojfs/VuK4vuiwAhI/AAAAAAAACrw/lLqvaGcT6EgWZ3z2Sv8ayFNuEEfkdP29Q/s320/theprincealfreddining_7.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5A Formosa Street W9 1EE 7286 3287</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://www.theprincealfred.com/">www.theprincealfred.com </a></span></div>
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From my review for <a href="http://www.squaremeal.co.uk/">www.squaremeal.co.uk</a></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-24806604628333579342016-02-23T14:49:00.000-08:002016-02-23T14:49:05.059-08:00Leman Street Tavern, Aldgate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xuqt9DEfPjw/Vszb5eWLLrI/AAAAAAAACrQ/Mi105VXFsMc/s1600/Gallery%2BRsize%2B5-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xuqt9DEfPjw/Vszb5eWLLrI/AAAAAAAACrQ/Mi105VXFsMc/s320/Gallery%2BRsize%2B5-1.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lHssRydqQ08/Vszc5DVKJdI/AAAAAAAACrY/T2XKknGpJsI/s1600/IMG_1836.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lHssRydqQ08/Vszc5DVKJdI/AAAAAAAACrY/T2XKknGpJsI/s320/IMG_1836.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In what was once the colourful heart of the old Jewish East End, the pogrom continues unchecked. </span>Championed by a megalomaniac Mayor who has the interests of Brexit Boris, not London or Britain, at the heart of his cold calculating heart; Goodman’s Fields is yet another shining example of the shiny boxy bland ghettoes to greed that are disfiguring our city, robbing it of all originality and charm. At the entrance to this new 'luxury' slum,<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Geronimo Inns has splashed </span>out a tidy sum<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> on its latest trough and watering hole, Leman Street Tavern. The same </span>£1.5 million <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">would just about buy a banker a pad here - although possibly not one with a view of the equine civic 'art' that announces it. This is a blessing in disguise: two bronze stallions frolicking in a stream are the sort of trashy 70s sculptures only Beverley from Abigail's Party or deranged deceased dictators, the Caesescus, would brook in their front yard's brook. Geronimo Inns' </span>('a group of proper pubs with an eye for the different and the delicious’<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">) newbie is comfy, colourful and serviceable… but for ‘different’ read </span>'design-by-numbers after various punchier postmodern bar-brasserie-gastropubs.'<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> ‘Delicious’? That'll be </span>Macon-Lugny on a list that largely sits south of £30 and offers two dozen choices by the glass for sunny day stragglers drawn to a generic pavement terrace onto a chronically congested A-road.<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Fill up on bar snacks of black pudding sausage roll, baked Camembert with buttered soldiers, and potato and leek hotpot. Dine on crab gratin followed by pork faggot, greens and mash, with fried milk and poached rhubarb for afters at LST, the sort of mid-market one-size-fits-all gaff I imagine morning TV Haribore eye candy Susanna Reid might fancy. Me? I'm off to grittier gaffs on nearby polyglot Brick Lane...before the Curse of the Developer destroys it too. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Goodman’s Fields, Leman Street, E1 8EY 3437 0001<a href="http://www.lemanstreettavern.co.uk/">www.lemanstreettavern.co.uk </a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-77309960363445729302016-02-23T10:07:00.000-08:002016-02-24T08:29:14.888-08:00Paper, Dress, Vintage: Hackney<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In Hackney, rummage for 60s frocks, 50s fun furs, flouncy frilly blouses, fawn felt fedoras and fuchsia feather boas and - since there's no way you're ever going to squeeze into those hot heliotrope Biba hot-pants circa Thin Lizzy you just spotted; you might as well squeeze in afternoon tea and cake served on colourful mismatched china that last saw action back in the Black and White Minstrels' black and white telly days. Anytime I revisit retro threads, I'm struck by how skinny we were back in the day before my one-time 27-inch waist was hit by rampant inflation. By night, at this Second-Hand Rose's delight - recently relocated from Shoreditch - pull on your glad-rags as a funky preloved clothes shop transforms into a bar and social open until 1am at weekends. Her dress rails tidied away, stylish owner Hannah serves classic pre-batched gin, rum, whiskey and vodka cocktails courtesy of Bethnal Green bar, Craft Cocktail Co, as well as a selection of beers by Crate, Hackney and Pressure Drop. Served by a second (microscopic) bar, the upstairs men’s department morphs seamlessly into a live lounge. A small stage hosts rockabilly, soul, blues and swing artistes when the room is not otherwise given over to jive classes, comedy, burlesque, cabaret and drawing classes. There’s even a wee garden in which to model the King's Road dolly bird @ Chelsea Girl halter-dress, serape, sun hat and cats eye shades Ms Moss would kill for. Like serial party animal Kate, Paper, Dress, Vintage has got the London Look.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">352A Mare Street E8 1HR 8510 0520 <a href="http://paperdressvintage.co.uk/bar%C2%A0">http://paperdressvintage.co.uk/bar </a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-22486195439479015992016-02-23T09:30:00.000-08:002016-02-23T09:30:15.175-08:00The Lexington, Islington<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite being recently tarted-up and rouged - scarlet flock wallpaper, crystal chandeliers and steer head skulls - this old dame still comes on like a saloon in a seen-better-days cathouse in its spiritual home - Lexington, Kentucky. At its long Rhett Butler-butch bar, choose from around 100 American ryes and small batch bourbons, many of them - George Dickel Barrel Select and Sazerac 20 for instance - rare. Whiskey-based cocktails such as Boulevardier and Red Rye, a Manhattan made with Fernet Branca, are fine at £7 but with Kentucky and the South the theme, I’d like to see the julep jump out in all its juicy variations. Otherwise, there's wine from £18, Goose Island and Anchor Steam and London crafties from the likes of Hammerton and Sambrook’s. New on a menu that includes mixed mezze, and 3 for £6 pile-em-high tacos, is a range of pies - jerk chicken and sweet potato; rabbit, bacon, mushroom and cider ; ‘vegan shepherd’s pie’ etc - served with mash. Even at full capacity, you can hear yourself speak in the main bar. ‘Screaming guitars and thumbing bass’, says the website, are restricted to the club room above; its programme aimed at</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> musos more inclined to Iggy Pop than Simon Cowell-pop. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">96 - 98 Pentonville Road N1 9JB 837 5371<a href="http://www.thelexington.co.uk/">www.thelexington.co.uk </a></span></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-47117300976123769252016-01-27T06:42:00.001-08:002016-01-27T06:42:57.798-08:00Ropewalk, Bermondsey<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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The dudes at Disappearing Dining Club have shoehorned a permanent cocktail bar into the Fagan-esque treasure trove that is the London Architectural Salvage and Supply Co in foodie enclave, Maltby Street. In artfully dodgy Dickensian surroundings where accents, tastes and, inevitably, prices are more New- than Old Bermondsey, settle in at a bar salvaged from a Victorian barge for the £8 likes of Diamond Black - a Rittenhouse rye, Calvados and Strega Manhattan and The Long Hello (a Cava cocktail made with apple brandy, elderflower liqueur and bitters) or a Plymouth sloe gin sour. There’s no food; customers are encouraged to bring in snacks (from any of the numerous stalls in the alleyway outside) to enjoy with Modus Hoperandi and Hiver Honey craft beer and Picpoul , Primitivo and similarly unpretentious vino by the glass and bottle. Parties can be accommodated in the atmospheric jumble of Ropewalk’s antiques-stuffed dining rooms, where the full Disappearing Dining Club experience is available both to customers who book in advance and at various ticketed events.<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">LASSCO, 41 Maltby Street SE1 3793 0202<span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span><a href="http://www.disappearingdiningclub.co.uk/" style="font-size: 12px;">www.disappearingdiningclub.co.uk </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">For more of my reviews, search 'bars' at www.squaremeal.co.uk </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258877622214959256.post-66828302890394323932016-01-27T06:25:00.000-08:002016-01-27T06:25:10.781-08:00Buster Mantis, Deptford<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mrERttxccew/VqjPXD1tJ1I/AAAAAAAACqA/5fh41u3fVnU/s1600/Buster-Mantis-2016-WEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mrERttxccew/VqjPXD1tJ1I/AAAAAAAACqA/5fh41u3fVnU/s320/Buster-Mantis-2016-WEB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--RmNIflBX3I/VqjPXA7iV6I/AAAAAAAACqE/QYjXkVygXBc/s1600/Buster-Mantis-2016-4-WEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--RmNIflBX3I/VqjPXA7iV6I/AAAAAAAACqE/QYjXkVygXBc/s200/Buster-Mantis-2016-4-WEB.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I'm with Simon Jenkins who, in the Evening Standard, regularly rails against the trashing of London's skyline. With that ugliest of blots on the landscape, Boris Johnson, as c</span>heerleader-in-charge, tacky towers - 'planned' with no thought to scale, context or locality<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> are - are going up faster than will the wall between Mexico and the USA should another greed-driven buffoon, Donald Trump, gain power. In which case... God bless America! God save humankind! And "Allahu Akbar! At least those nukes Teheran and Daesh didn't have in their arsenal have turned those darned towers to dust!" Built not for the good of actual Londoners, the developers' odious erections </span>are 'designed' for the enrichment of the spivs and money launderers (and complicit cash-guzzling councils) that <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">are ripping the city's</span> social fabric asunder with their state-sanctioned giant Ponzi scheme. <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Even gritty Deptford is not immune from the spread of cancerous concrete carbuncles. </span>Gordon McGowan, <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">phlegmatic Anglo-Jamaican owner of Buster Mantis (</span>named after Sir Alex Bustamante, the British-born MP that became Jamaica’s first PM) <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">worries about how the regeneration will impact his 'hood. Set in two previously derelict railway arches, his post-industrial, (late-night) DJ bar/ kitchen /arts and events space, unlike the 'luxury' apartments now rising in numbers around it, has both heart and soul, however. McGowan’s Caribbean upbringing is evident in his start-up's concise range of £7.50 cocktails that major on rum - Orange Dark and Stormy; Mama’s homemade punch; Lychee Mojito etc and Mad Ting, a gin, whisky and brandy island iced tea. A reasonable selection of wines, London craft beers (and Red Stripe, natch) work with pepper shrimp, wings or saltfish fritters with aïoli, followed by jerk chicken, rice and peas (£8.50), jackfruit burger or jerked pork belly, red bean puree and sweet potato mash all made with love. Film screenings and community-focussed events are set to follow. I pray there still is a community for Buster M to tap into once Deptford is re-populated with the kind of high-living clones that aspire to charmless chicken coops in grim gulags</span> that recall<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> 'a Moscow suburb' as Simon Jenkins rightly says. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">3 - 4 Resolution Way, SE8 4NT 8691 5191<span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span><a href="http://www.bustermantis.com/" style="font-size: 12px;">www.bustermantis.com </a></span></div>
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Keith Barker-Main, Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12528699743932149063noreply@blogger.com