On the whole, drinking in 2023 felt a bit unhinged. It was like waking up after a heavy night out dry-mouthed and full of self-loathing, and deciding to run a half marathon in the spirit of wellness, but not before smoking a cigarette and having a flat white. We have vices for a reason.
Last year saw a swarm of long-delayed bar and restaurant openings, and these pent-up new venues finally released themselves into the wild like a firestorm burning through a forest. It was all arguably too much, with “last week’s” new bar opening becoming old hat at record speed — even for a mercurial city like London. Still, there was so much more to be excited about than overwhelmed by: Kwãnt (Stratton Street, W1J, kwnt-mayfair.square), which closed during the pandemic soon after breaking into the top 10 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2020, reopened at its new Mayfair location and seemingly picked up where it left off, except with the addition of Michelin-star-calibre bar bites. Raffles London (Whitehall, SW1A, raffles.com) finally opened at the historic OWO, and my golly is it is glorious — as are its lavish bars and restaurants. Fine wine and spirits connoisseurs have prestigious bottlings to delve into at Mauro Colagreco, while Cognac lovers can revel in the tableside Louis XIII service at The Guards Bar. And Equal Parts (Hackney Road, E2, equalpartslondon.com) of Sager + Wilde pedigree debuted and became Hackney’s neighbourhood cocktail bar of dreams, operating as a coffee shop during the day and cocktail bar with an unrivalled sound system in the evening.
