I was gutted when Soho’s Green Fingernail closed having lasted less time than a coat of cheap red varnish. The exotic she-males d’un certain age that congregated within notwithstanding, reason to mourn its demise was that the legendary Dick Bradsell regularly plied his trade behind its bar. After a brief hiatus, the inventor of now universal cocktails such as Plymouth gin-based delights, The Bramble and The Wibble, is once again refreshing the parts lesser mixmeisters can’t reach with his latest residency, downstairs at El Camino. What was formerly Enclave and way before that, Abigail’s Party, is now a lair for foxy dames, toothpick-thin honchos in spivvy tailoring and droll meejah monkeys; hudded in its alcove booths, they dish the dirt then loon around to swinging bachelor pad beats and arch pop as the late-late party cranks up. Spartan design that echoes the Soho beat cellars of the 1950s shifts the focus on to Bradsell’s craft, here, favouring Latino drenches such as £7.50 fruit batidas, daquiris and margaritas that harness premium agave tequilas - Patrón, Tapatío, 7 Leguas et al - to devastating effect. Follow these up with lime-in-the-neck Mexican lagers and you’ll soon be in it’s-a-long-fall-from-a-tall-bar-stool territory. Tequila, as Terrorvision said, makes me happy. Fortunately, after a fourth, it also makes you numb.
Dick’s Bar at El Camino, 25 -27 Brewer St, W1 7734 7711
