We’re all guilty of sticking to our stalwarts: mine’s a dry gin martini, olive, dash of olive oil — so predictable. But when I do tread off this well-worn path, I’m lucky that inevitably bars and their tenders will have been working on new and shiny menus to keep me on my toes. Whether they’re celebrating a new season, laying down the gauntlet for a new venture, or simply the culmination of a team’s recent creative process, there are plenty of new menus ready to be tried across town.
From high concept themes to alfresco slingers, illustrated masterpieces to photogenic collections, I’ve spent the last few weeks trying some of the best in London. Front-line reporting, at its finest.
KwÄnt
Perhaps the most hotly anticipated opening of the year has landed with razzmatazz in Mayfair, and with it a shiny new menu. The second iteration of Erik Lorincz’s KwÄnt has been romancing drinks lovers with its dazzling interiors and precision-perfect drinks. The menu is made up of bold signatures (a testament to Lorincz’s deft hand and sharp mind) and his own takes on the classics: for the former, the Skin Contact is a prime example with gin, fino sherry, tomato water and liquid shio koji, the latter, check out the Cosmo Highball below. Garnishes are doll-house-like trinkets and I’d be remiss not to mention the food, from St John, Fat Duck and No 5 Social alumni, Joni Ketonen. And don’t pronounce the name (aka ‘quaint’) wrong either — too embarrassing.
Milliken’s choice: Cosmo Highball. Tall, pink, vivacious. No, not Barbie, but this effervescent take on the classic Cosmopolitan with gin, oat, cranberry, lemon, timur berry, cardamom and nasturtium. Sex and the City fans will be glad to hear that this sequel is a roaring success.
52 Stratton Street, W1J 8LN, @kwantmayfair
Swift Soho
Named Postcards, the new menu downstairs at the OG Swift bar pays homage to the tastes of home for the team behind the bar. Illustrated in nostalgic style to bring to life the scenes each drink evokes, it’s made up of 20 cocktails that serve as love letters to the likes of Sweden’s forests, The Northern Lights, New Orleans and Singapore. Its cocktails are indeed transportive: Humbug brings a sweet shop energy to cognac, Cuban rum and dulce de leche, while Vignette catapults you to the Cote d’Azur, with gin, Noilly Prat, St Germain, celery and absinthe.
Milliken’s choice: Praline Flip. A cocktail I’d definitely write home about: Swift’s own spiced rum, hazelnut, Guinness, egg and Angostura combine to make this impossibly elegant and smooth sipper. A liquid rendition of how I think I look while barrelling down a hotel waterslide.
12 Old Compton Street, W1D 4TQ, barswift.com
Baccarat Bar at Harrods
Earth, air, fire and water: the four elements are the basis for the Metamorphosis menu at Harrods’ lower ground floor bar. This one’s for the nerds: expect words like malolactic conversion, emulsification and ultrasonic extraction to explain how the team get some seriously cool flavours to pop from Iberico bones, sweet potato, cornbread and artichokes. Big shoutout to the non-alcs here — these might just be the best in town. Oh, and there’s the glassware. Made by the luxury French crystal maker Baccarat, every single glass is a thing of beauty. Don’t invite your clumsy mate (or the one whose bag glasses seem to fall into), whatever you do.
Milliken’s choice: Alter Life. Clairin, artichoke heart, tarragon, smoked almond, lime and mint make this a super grown-up Mojito of sorts — properly green, properly fresh, properly delicious.
87-135 Brompton Road, SW1X 7XL, harrods.com
Hacha
While it might be best known for its illusionary Mirror Margarita, Hacha has just launched a mini aperitivo menu, Aperitivo de Agave to celebrate its collaboration with London-based vermouth producer Vault Aperitivo. Pine, lime and thyme, among other botanicals, have been chosen for the Hacha x Vault Vermouth to make it a match for the notes of tequila and mezcal, and it has been given the cocktail treatment in the form of an Hibiscus Americano, Negroni Blanco an Rociar Classico — all of which can be made using tequila blanco or mezcal verde.
Milliken’s choice: Mini Martini. Giving the classic an agave twist, the team use the Hacha x Vault Vermouth to mix with either mezcal or tequila. It’s the ideal way to see just how well this vermouth works with agave-based spirits. And at £4.50, it would be an actual crime not to order it.
Brixton and Dalston; 12 Market Row, London SW9 8LD, 378 Kingsland Road, London E8 4AA, hachabar.com
American Bar at The Savoy
The Lionesses, Bond and bar regular Maggie all get a nod on the new The Savoy: An American Bar Journal menu at the doyenne of London’s bar scene. Head bartender Chelsie Bailey and her team have brought together 15 new cocktails for their debut menu, introducing their own little piece of history at the iconic bar. Cocktail names sound like a pretty good drag show lineup — Dandy Beau, Homecoming, Jack Rabbit, Cardamom Angel Face, New York Cherub, to name few — and there are some bold twists in there too: the Coffee Black Velvet is a must-try.
Milliken’s choice: Cardamom Angel Face. Perfect for summer, this carbonated twist on an Angel Face Cocktail combines gin, Calvados, apricot wine and cardamom cream soda. Actual heaven.
The Savoy, Strand, WC2R 0EZ, thesavoylondon.com
The Donovan Bar
The Evoke menu feels more like a coffee table book than a cocktail menu, with iconic photos from Sixties fashion photographer Terence Donovan (after whom the bar is named) acting as a backdrop to 12 seriously sensational cocktails. All based around emotional memories, they are also a homage to the Italian background of the team: Martini Roots incorporates Grana Padano, tomato and focaccia; Gratitude is a bombastic combination of coffee and orange; and Adrenaline marries balsamic vinegar and amaro. It’s a triumph, and there’s even a cocktail served in a replica head of the face of the bar, legend Salvatore Calabrese. Creepy or top-tier Insta fodder? You decide.
Milliken’s choice: Red. Tequila, chilli, amaro, mezcal and bubbles are the supporting artists to the star ingredient of this cocktail — the red pepper. The seeds are even pulverised and used to amp up the flavour as a dusted garnish on the glass too. Unreal — and it might just be my drink of the summer.
33 Albemarle Street, W1S 4BP, roccofortehotels.com
Punch Room
Anyone that actually listened in physics at school will get to grips quickly with the concept of the London Edition hotel bar’s new menu, Lights. Even if you didn’t (like me), you’ll recognise that it’s a fun and clever concept: using opaque, translucent and transparent as their starting points, the team has created five punches in each category that play with your vision to enhance your perception of each drink. Nearly every single one includes a perfectly pitched tea — from jasmine and pipacha oolong, to red shiso and violet tea. Garnishes are fun too, like mint tea foam, white chocolate coins and ancho reyes dipped limes.
Milliken’s choice: Cockrow Punch. Cockrow refers to the time of day we know as daybreak and the use of croissants with oolong tea, vodka, lemon and cream soda is a clever touch in this unassuming but endearing little number.
10 Berners Street, W1T 3NP, editionhotels.com
The terrace at Lyaness
Inside the Mr Lyan bar, the Ancestral Cookbook menu is an absolute stormer. But out on the terrace, which overlooks the South Bank, you’ll find a newer menu which has been created especially for the impending hotter weather: enter, Lyaness Riviera. This is where the award-winning team is throwing some cute cocktails outside for an afternoon sesh or an amble (you can take them away too). Think Frozen Banana Coffee, a Riviera Margarita and, of course, Champagne.
Milliken’s choice: Strawberry and Clarified Cream. Wimbers (no) might be over, but this classic combo lives on in this cheeky number with caco vodka, whey, sweet and sour strawberry and roe Champagne. Game, set, match.
20 Upper Ground, SE1 9PD, lyaness.com
Artesian at The Langham
One of London’s most esteemed bar’s, the Artesian has launched its Ingredients of the Future menu, laying bare the vegetables, flowers, fruits, nuts (and insects) that the team believes are the future of making drinks more friendly for our time-ticking planet. Each of the 16 cocktails are based around one core ingredient — from sweet potatoes and tiger nuts, to soil, spirulina and — which is used in a multitude of ways to create each of the visually arresting cocktails on a very brave menu for a hotel bar.
Milliken’s choice: Soil. A twist on a dry Martini, this vodka, sake, koji and soil scent cocktail is mineral as hell, and refreshing to boot. Kind of like drinking a bar-quality Martini after three days at a rainy Glasto.
