Nightlife
Originally published on Tuesday, 4th May 2010
One Shot Wonder
New single-spirit bars to simplify your life
Wasn’t life easier when your alcoholic knowledge never extended beyond Bacardi and Tesco-value Vodka, mixers were restricted to Coke and lemonade, and those underdeveloped taste-buds just assumed everything was supposed to taste a bit...sharp? Nowadays we’re expected to make sense of gibberish wine cards, take authoritative sips of things, and negotiate cocktail menu minefields of ingrediental-insurgents. Even simple spirits come in flavoured, variously-aged and gold-labelled varieties.
Which is why we’re hailing the return of the single-spirit bar, like The Artesian which only serves rum – perfect, premium, pared down rum. If you’re in the mood for a little hole-in-the-wall tipple, try the newly opened Bar Pepito in King’s Cross, which specialises in sherry and is one of the most authentic little bodegas we’ve seen in a while.
Then there’s the gin. Not only are Harvey Nichols transforming their Fifth Floor Bar into a Tanqueray -only martini terrace (complete with monochromatic decor, a white martini booth and a ‘cocktail flight’ for tasting connoisseurs), but the Serpentine are getting in on the act too. Their gin bar will be housed in a restored 1950’s Citroen H Van right by the water and surrounded by beanbags, lanterns and deckchairs, serving up 10 select varieties of gin with a choice of two tonics.
Sunshine + summer + spirits; now that’s simple.
INFO
Artesian at The Langham, 1c Portland Place, W1B 1JA
www.artesian-bar.co.uk/artesian.html
Bar Pepito, next to Camino, 3 Varnishers Yard, The Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, N1 9NL.
www.camino.uk.com/pepito
Tanqueray No.Ten Terrace, Harvey Nichols 5th Floor, 109-125 Knightsbridge, SW3 1DB.
www.harveynichols.com
Gin Bar at the Serpentine Bar & Kitchen opens 20th May. Serpentine Road, Hyde Park, W2 2UH.
www.serpentinebarandkitchen.com
