Dandelyan, Blackfriars
Dandelyan is one of the world’s 50 best bars and one of my personal favourites. With a menu that explores modern botany, this could easily be a pretentious place of moody mixologists. It is not – these are bartenders, skilled in the art of hospitality, as well as drinks creation. This place has thought about all aspects of the bar experience. The decor is plush but not to the point you look yourself up and down before entering. Being part of the boutique hotel Mondrian London means there is sense of charm and elegance rather than overbearing luxury. The cocktail classes flock to see the concoctions of famed drinksmiths Ryan Chetiyawardana and Iain Griffiths, but thanks to its location, inside one of London’s coolest hotels, and on the South Bank, it attracts a wide range of customers. The modern-botany focus narrowed this January to “the effect botany has had on historical civilisations”. If you’re of a curious disposition, you’ll be drawn to the cocktails with esoteric descriptions. The Pinnacle Point Fizz stands out: tequila, mixtamalised blue corn, sloe, ginger bitters, sour pineapple and soda. Too safe? How about Heirloom, with whisky, Kamm & Sons, plant haemoglobin and exploded raspberry cordial. Up a notch? The 13th Century Boy has gin, palm and pine embalming cordial and mummified citrus. Like natural science, somehow the elements neatly weave together.
• Hamish Smith, editor of
Black Rock, Shoreditch
Whisky is more exciting than it’s ever been, yet most whisky bars are still stuck in the dark ages: stuffy, intimidating and old-fashioned. But this cool little coal hole of a place breaks the mould. It groups its whiskies – 250 of them, from around the world – by flavour rather than country, so choosing is easy, and most drams, apart from a few rarities, are £7-£11. The Japanese-influenced cocktails are excellent too, with beautiful ice, prepared by staff who really know their stuff (but don’t indulge in jargon). And the table is show-stopping – an 18ft slab of oak tree with channels of whisky flowing through it. Black Rock is whisky made fun.
• , drinks journalist and author
Mark’s Bar at Hix, Soho
Of all of my favourite London bars, this is the one I can rely on for its winning and heady combination of excellent drinks – you can go as stable or as far-out as you like – top-notch service and bar snacks, and a feeling that you’ve arrived in an illicit-but-classy drinking den. This is the kind of place you can come to have a sensible chat with a colleague over a Black Cow vodka and tonic at the gold bar; for a sexy date with someone new or someone you love (most couples seem to end up snogging on the sofas); for an experimental whisky cocktail; or to get sloshed on a round of signature Hix Fixes with some pals. Come on a Thursday after 10pm for the regular Mark’s Lates party and you’ll end up dancing until 3am (and watching bartenders dancing on the bar). After all that, it’s standard practice to come upstairs for air and wonder where the hours have gone.
• , food and travel writer
The Nightjar, Shoreditch
The journey to the Nightjar starts at Old Street roundabout. There’s just this kebab shop upstairs then, next to it, there is this well-presented guy on the door – there’s nothing else to look at. To go for the first time, especially if you’re taking someone who’s never been, is special – but you really should book in advance. Walking down the stairs through a long thin corridor and into that bar for the first time is amazing. It’s a dark space, with candles everywhere. It has this beautiful tin ceiling that reflects light beautifully. Waiters will greet you, and they know the menu inside out. The menu changes regularly and the drinks are bespoke, but you can’t really go wrong: the waiters push you in the direction of how you’re feeling. The Nightjar changed the game a bit, with that seated cocktail dining experience with live jazz and swing in the background. The atmosphere when the music is peaking is dark and sexy and I can’t think of another bar that goes to so much effort in the presentation of every single drink in its list. It really is the best in the world at what it does.
• JJ Goodman, founder of the
69 Colebrooke Row, Islington
The first thing that I look for in a bar is the greeting. It’s that moment that takes you from being a stranger in a strange place to a welcomed guest, waiting for a drink. Even when it’s three deep at 69, there will always be someone who works there whose eyes go directly to the door when it opens. 69 is a tiny, tucked-away bar lifted out of a Fellini film. Inside, there’s black wood, white-jacketed staff – and a relaxed elegance. If I pop in on the early side I’m sure to run into a mix of artists and writers, some of the designer friends of Tony Conigliaro – its owner – as well as high-end bartenders from around the world who make pilgrimages to the bar to experience Tony’s drinks. 69 has been influential on the cocktail bar scene. It was one of the earlier bars to take a chance on stepping up into higher-end cocktailswhen there was this change from people looking for the place that gave you the biggest drink to the place that gave you the best drink. I loved the Lipstick Cocktail and the Fig leaf Martini, where Tony distils fig leaf into the spirit. The Caper leaf Martini is also gorgeous. And the Prairie oyster, with the deconstructed tomato, is something well worth trying.
• Jared Brown, master distillier at
Shrub and Shutter, Brixton
Like all our favourite kind of bars, Shrub and Shutter feels like a mate’s kitchen – but with its shelves packed full of bottles, books and herbs and a seasonally changing menu scribbled in chalk on the blackboard. You never quite know what you’re going to get behind that glass door, but it’s all part of the fun: live jazz, dinner dates, full-blown parties or one-off Disney nights where cocktails come served in a smoking genie lamp. The best seat in the house is up at the bar getting up to mischief with the bartenders; these boys not only know how to have a good time but they’re the creative geniuses behind the drinks. We’re not talking any old Old Fashioned, these are the kind of creations you write home about about – and though they’re a little crazy, they all taste perfect.
• Hannah Lodge, head of content for . A new app for bookings at the best bars in London is
Trailer Happiness, Notting Hill
A fantastic cocktail menu is essential, but I think it’s the people who really make a bar. Trailer Happiness attracts an excellent crowd and does the best rum cocktails in London. It’s a great bar to visit with a group of friends or even when travelling solo. It’s been an institution for many years and is known for its adoration for my favourite spirit: rum. That’s not to say itdoesn’t do a killer G&T or vodka Martini, but the highlights and more innovative cocktails on the menu are usually rum-based. During Notting Hill Carnival, the team can be found cooking up jerk chicken and serving it alongside delicious rum punches. Trailer Carnival Lockdown is my favourite party, and where I can be found with a punch cocktail in hand. My favourite night at Trailer had to be after Imbibe Live 2013 (an annual drinks trade show). I had just found out that I had been offered the job at OXO Bar and Restaurantand I remember it was an extremely hot day. Many faces from the bar trade were at Trailer after the Imbibe show and we had an amazing night. The atmosphere, the drinks and the people absolutely made the evening. I felt like I was on a Caribbean Island with all of my best mates – and it’s where I met my boyfriend. But, honestly, no matter what time of year it is, a night in Trailer can transport you to a party in Barbados – until closing time anyway.
• Sophie Bratt is assistant bar manager at the
The Sun Tavern, Bethnal Green
To me, the most basic thing a bar should be is fun. Nobody goes to a bar to have a bad time. Loads of places do it extremely well, but none, in my opinion, more so than the Sun Tavern. The owners will probably tell you different, but my take on it is that this place is a modern-day version of a pub. The decor is tough to pin down to one particular style, but it feels like a pub should feel. Homely, welcoming and reliable, along with one of the best-looking back bars in London; the days of Fosters on draught and a dusty bottle of Cointreau on the back bar are dead. The Sun has a great selection of beers on tap, which change regularly, a short, but very well put together list of house cocktails and staff as knowledgable on classic cocktails as anywhere else in London. You’ll find me working my way through its extensive selection of Irish whiskeys.
•
Simon Thompson, general manager of
Cahoots, Soho
Nine times out of 10, when I get told about a theme bar I’m like, “Screw this, I just want to go to a bar and have a nice drink.” Cahoots is very much a themed bar, it shouldn’t work, but it does. As soon as you go in, you find yourself buying into the whole thing and that’s what great bars do. It’s themed around blitz-chic and is designed with a high level of authenticity: down to the staff talking in received pronunciation. It’s all been thought through so wonderfully; the way the staff dress, talk, the theatre of the entrance – as if being ushered into a bomb shelter. Part of the bar is in what used to be the Kingly Court tube station, so I think that’s where it got some of its theme from. The drink menus come on a kind-of 1940s-style newspaper, but it has serious people in charge of its bar programme; there’s been an effort to hire people who see making drinks as an artform. Products are chosen carefully, there a lot of homemade ingredients and the owners spend time and effort on the presentation and garnishing. But really it’s just a lot of fun. It’s the kind of place where you could come in sceptical and get won over.
• Edmund Weil, co-founder
Craft Beer Co, Brixton
Lurking around the corner from the two Brixton stations, down the end of a none-to-pretty road, is the altar to ale that is Craft Beer Co. Significantly buzzier than its siblings, it has a huge outside space, which has been rammed every time I’ve been in, or gone past. It’s no doubt down to the excellent selection of beers, including some exclusive imports. Another bonus about CBC Brixton is that it sometimes opens even later when there’s a gig at Brixton Academy, meaning (if my last visit is anything to go by) you can drink a decent beer before and after your concert instead of just having to spend your evening mournfully staring into a plastic glass of the overpriced beer available in the venue itself.
•
, award-winning beer writer and author
