Though Clare Smyth’s Notting Hill restaurant Core holds three Michelin stars, it feels a lot like a neighbourhood hangout. W11’s old money irreverence over Mayfair desperation; gilt-edged but where regulars might stay late and buy the staff a drink.
No more so is all this apparent than at Whiskey & Seaweed, its adjacent new bar. It is dimly lit and green, shards of frosted glass as dividers, with an enormous whiskey cabinet celebrating distillers from the British Isles. This might just be another high-end cocktail bar, somewhere to further dent a Saltburnesque money pile before seven courses for £215. But there is a true purpose to the place and, more to the point, it may be treated as a bar alone. The dining room feels far away. Customers walking past to the loo won’t look right but left, to the kitchen, where chefs work behind a wall of glass. Do not call it dancing.
Whiskey & Seaweed is supposed to be about cocktails. Mostly it is. There is a signature serve of the same name that blends butter-washed Irish whiskey with kelp, sea lettuce, and black cardamom — a riotous drink that inspires visions of coastal frolicking. A modern interpretation of a Bloody Mary, where vodka rolls around with tomato consommé, fino sherry and lemon juice, must foster acclaim. These clear, tomato-based cocktails are the best of modernity. They make use of technique, but stop short of zealotry. I hope they are on everyone’s ‘in for 2024’ lists. There are classics, too; Irish coffee is made tableside.
What is more affecting, though, is this bar presents an opportunity to enjoy the bounty of a grand restaurant on a leaner budget. There are £4-£7 snacks, among them fried chicken with caviar — the very one served at Harry and Meghan’s wedding, no less — a lobster roll, a mini Caesar salad, roast chicken morsels with gravy. Even Smyth’s famous potato and roe dish is available, though an anomaly at £20.
And so what is evident is the opportunity for a pair to have a few £8 beers or a cocktail or two, a handful of three-star snacks, and still leave with change from a ton. Core blimey.
