As hints go, a disco ball is admittedly an unsubtle one — but anyone who spends their evenings in cocktail bars will have noticed that the number of glittering orbs is decidedly on the up. What was once a naff nod to Seventies disco culture is now seen as a clue that the place in question is chic — and, crucially, that the vibe is more about letting loose than striking a pose. And it’s not just the decor, now the drinks are following suit.
“The thing with a lot of overly scientific drinks,” says Homeboy (N1, SW11, homeboybar.com) co-founder Aaron Wall, “is that they just aren’t that approachable. I think that’s what people are bored of.”
Quite. As such, bars are going in another direction: letting their hair down, and riffing on the kind of disco drinks that once prompted a disdainful curl of the lip. Hospitality consultant and professional woman about town Anna Sebastian is seeing a lot of this new vibe. “I think that playfulness is coming back,” she says. “People are leaning towards drinks that are a little bit nostalgic, a little bit familiar. It’s about that escapism.” Sebastian is helping launch the much-anticipated Raffles London at The OWO (SW1, theowo.london), which is opening in the summer and is following suit. “We’ve been chatting about the Singapore sling — I’m going to bring it back!” she says. Anything else from the old days? “The grasshopper is back on menus, and there’s lots of elevated, sophisticated takes on the porn star martini.”
Over in the Dorchester’s Vesper Bar (W1, dorchestercollection.com), Lucia Montanelli points out that big groups will often do round after round of these, and has even had an uptick in orders for the once-mocked appletini, though her menu includes any number of more sophisticated serves where a sense of stylish joy is the thing — like the rum-soaked Bessie Mae, inspired by Elizabeth Taylor and complete with bubbles that float like clouds, pictured below. The Coral Room’s (WC1, thecoralroom.co.uk) Giovanni Spezziga theorises that drinks which first made it decades ago, like the Harvey Wallbanger, blue Hawaii and tequila sunrise, are being ordered again now as people lean into a lust for an Eighties vibe: “It was about neon lights, disco, sex, drugs and rock and roll.”
To Spezziga’s list, Satan’s Whiskers’ (E2, satanswhiskers.com) Kevin Armstrong adds “the pink squirrel, piña colada, yellow bird, and golden Cadillac, [which] frequently get menu space and are always well received.” These are familiar names, if sometimes maligned ones. “Whilst they are often seen as sweet, beachside, holiday cocktails and are frequently disregarded, when made well, with the sweetness kept in check, they are still superb cocktails,” he says.
This is key — old school drinks are back, but not the old techniques, and most bars have long ditched the saccharine sour mixes and artificial ingredients that plagued cocktail culture decades ago. Some of this might be tied to the unstoppable rise of the espresso martini, which over the past few years has made an astonishing comeback. Its popularity has encouraged bartenders to experiment both with it and other overlooked classics. At stylish Kapara (W1, kapara.co.uk), the sleek new restaurant from the Bala Baya team, its fashionable crowd spend the nights sipping their katani, where a short espresso martini is stirred up with cardamom and coconut milk foam. The other names on the menu offer a clue to the kind of night they want you to have: Part Time Lover; Noty Noty; Dirty Talks. “I wanted the names to be an ice-breaker, to give people something to laugh about,” says head bartender Matteo Battistello. “People want to come out and have fun, have a good time.”
It’s a similar vibe at Sweeties at the Standard (WC1, standardhotels.com), where the likes of drinks called Hot Lips and Kiss Me are served till 2.30am. “Drinking is very much linked to flirting,” counsels Spezziga.
Fun, then, is back, and what was once trash is now flash. With better ingredients and revamped recipes, retro cocktails have been reborn, and everywhere from five-star hotel bars to downstairs dives are unashamedly delivering wistful drinks with a touch of class, or going after out-and-out fun — see the light-up drinks at Common Decency in the Nomad (WC2, thenomadhotel.com) or the elaborate serves that add a welcome sense of mischief at the excellent American Bar in the Stafford (SW1, thestaffordlondon.com). In other words, po-faced pours and pre-Prohibition numbers have been ditched in favour of vehemently singing and dancing the night away with no-frills liquid comforts in hand. Some, of course, are better than others, but here are five classics to try at home, plus the best versions of them across the capital. Bottom’s up to bad taste.
Piña colada
This transportive Puerto Rican classic famously has its A-list fans; Jennifer Lawrence is said to sometimes sip on one between takes (something she started on the set of The Hunger Games). She was onto something: it’s both wildly fresh, thanks to the pineapple juice, but comes creamy, too. It’s the kind of drink to crush this summer while lounging at in the sand when the Limin’ Beach Club reopens as Limin’ Southbank (56 Upper Ground, SE1, limin.co.uk) from April 1, but in the meantime, one of London’s finest Coladas can be found at Shoreditch’s Home Bar, where they stock the classic Coco Lopez cream of coconut, (a rarity in the UK, but worth seeking out). But at Coupette, bar manager Andrei Marcu serves what he calls “summer in a glass”, a Champagne-dosed piña colada made wiith its sophisticated blend of rums, pineapple and coconut sorbet. Hold the parasol, and bring on the brain freeze.
Have it out
- Coupette, 423 BethnalGreen Road, E2, coupette.co.uk
- Home Bar, 5a Ravey Street, EC2A, @home_on_ravey
Have it in
- 60 ml light rum
- 90 ml fresh pineapple juice
- 20 ml cream of coconut
- 15 ml lime juice
Method
- Blend all ingredients with one scoop of crushed ice, pour into a hurricane glass and garnish with the all-essential parasol and pineapple wedge.
Harvey Wallbanger
During its heyday in the Seventies, this was the drink of the people; so much so that Galliano L’Autentico became the country’s top selling liqueur brand during that decade. It seems hard to believe, except these taste like an orange ice lolly. At Satan’s Whiskers in Bethnal Green, they do right by the drink, serving it in a chilled highball glass with high quality orange juice. It’s the juice that’s the key ingredient according to owner Kevin Armstrong, who encourages home bartenders to find oranges with enough sweetness and acidity to bring the cocktail to life.
Have it out
- Satan’s Whiskers, 343 Cambridge Heath Road, E2, @satans_whiskers
- The Lowdown, 38 Bedford Street, WC2, 07810 063188
Have it in
- 35 ml vodka
- 110 ml fresh squeezed orange juice (strained)
- 15 ml Galliano L’Autentico
Method
In a chilled highball glass, pour the vodka and fresh OJ over ice and gently stir to mix. Float the Galliano L’Autentico, then garnish with half an orange wheel.
Grasshopper
Tasting precisely of pure mint choc chip, for a rich, fresh digestif, it doesn’t get much better. It’s back in style at Amaro: there, head bartender Victor Maggiolo whips up one of London’s best versions of the drink in its true equal-parts formula. Maggiolo says the grasshopper “never fails to surprise the guest” — perhaps because it’s a bright, vivid green.
Have it out
- Amaro Bar, 15 Kensington High Street, W8, amarobar.co.uk
- Stereo, 35 The Piazza, WC2, stereocoventgarden.com
Have it in
- 30ml crème de menthe
- 30ml double cream
- 30ml crème de cacao
Method
Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain up into a coupe glass and garnish with a mint leaf.
Appletini
A martini glass often has the miraculous ability of giving people an unwarranted sense of sophistication. Take it from JD of Scrubs, whose penchant for appletinis — easy on the ‘tini’ — stems from how it makes him feel (“fancy”). Contemporary iterations of appletinis not only give imbibers the fancy factor, they are also palatable. At Vesper, Montanelli says the bar ditches the artificial apple component for Granny Smith apple juice and Manzana Verde apple liqueur.
Have it out
- Vesper Bar, The Dorchester, 53 Park Lane, W1, dorchestercollection.com
- Blue Bar, The Berkeley, Wilton Place, SW1, the-berkeley.co.uk
Have it in
- 45ml vodka, or apple brandy
- 20ml lemon juice
- 20ml simple syrup
- 15ml apple juice
- 15ml apple liqueur
Method
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake hard and double strain into a Martini glass. Garnish with an apple slice (optional).
Strawberry daiquiri
Jimmy Kimmel might have smashed it at the Oscars this weekend, but his greatest achievement is surely persuading Daniel Craig to, for a skit, order a strawberry daiquiri as he would his signature martini as Bond. Cue a demand for a drink garnished with three umbrellas, served in a coconut and blended with a scoop of lemon sorbet.
At Homeboy in Islington, owner Aaron Wall puts his own elevated twist on the infamous summertime cocktail by adding some bubbly to the mix; an addition he claims “dials down the sweetness, and changes the texture to have a cleaner finish”. It’s a playful take on the drink that exhibits the fact that nostalgic comfort doesn’t always have to be cloying.
Have it out
- Homeboy Bar, 108 Essex Rd, N1 8LX, homeboybar.com
- Mayha, 43 Chiltern St, London W1U 6LS, mayhalondon.com
Have it in
- 60ml rum
- 5 ripe strawberries (de-stemmed)
- 10ml simple syrup
Method
Add the strawberries and syrup to a shaker and muddle. Then add the rest of the ingredients with ice, shake vigorously and double strain up into a coupe glass.
Amaretto sour
The improved Amaretto Sour served at most bars today is a far cry from the undrinkable version adulterated with sour mix and subpar triple sec from donkey’s years back. At Luca, bar manager Alex Lyonnes highlights the restaurant’s own twist on the rich and nutty classic called the angelico sour which pairs Frangelico with lemon shrub, brandy and a vegan foamer for a drink that he says is “velvety, hazelnut heaven in a glass”. It’s drinks like these that make you realise that a bottle of amaretto can do more than collect dust on a shelf.
Have it out
- Luca, 88 St John St, EC1M 4EH @luca.restaurant
- Common Decency, NoMad London, 28 Bow St, WC2E 7AW, @commondecencylondon
Have it in
- 45ml amaretto
- 30ml bourbon
- 22.5ml lemon juice
- 5ml demerara syrup
- 15ml egg white
Method
Add all ingredients to a shaker without ice and shake to emulsify egg white. Then add ice, shake again and double strain into a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with an expressed and discarded lemon twist and a maraschino cherry.
Porn star martini
An absolute banger — no pun intended — and the drink equivalent of a McDonald’s Happy Meal with its toy, as a single order comes with both a cocktail and a sidecar of bubbly.
The prototypical porn star martini can be found everywhere from pubs to hotel bars, but it’s the contemporary twists that have been catching the eyes of Londoners who prefer spirits other than vodka. The traveller’s martini at Viajante 87 in Notting Hill is one example; bar director Panos Kanatsoulis swaps vodka for tequila and mezcal in a savoury take that he says is “complex, mixing earthiness, grassiness and fruitiness”.
Have it out
- Viajante 87, 87 Notting Hill Gate, W11, viajantebar.com
- The Lowback, 1 Water Street, E14, @thelowbackbar
Have it in
- 60ml vanilla vodka
- 15ml passion fruit liqueur
- 15ml vanilla syrup
- 15ml lime juice
- Flesh of 1 ½ passion fruits
- 60ml shot of Champagne (optional)
Method
Add all ingredients except Champagne to a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Double strain through a fine strainer into a coupe glass, and garnish with the shell of the passion fruits, and serve with a shot of fizz.
