There’s a thing that they do at Schofield’s that says it all. If you have to head out of the bar for a phone call, or other such matters, when you return to the bar, you’ll find they’ve put your drink in the freezer while you’ve been away, and just as you sit down again, it’s placed back on the bar at exactly the same time.
It’s a classy, understated move, but one which sets this place apart from the pack, and among the many reasons why it’s been voted the best bar in the UK for the second year running at the industry bible Class magazine awards (last year it won best bar and best new bar, the first time that's ever happened).
If you’ve not been to Schofield’s, this exceptional bar on Little Quay Street, there could be a good reason for it. Unless you've been clever enough to book, it can be perilously tricky to get in during peak times.
Queues form and often would-be patrons - regulars or first-timers alike - end up shuffling off sadly, like Charlie Brown, resigned to the fact that they won’t be getting in.
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This is testament to how good it is (and also how small it is). Word gets around.
Owners Joe and Daniel Schofield, originally from Rossendale, honed their craft at some of the best cocktail bars in the world, including Coupette in Bethnal Green and the famous American Bar at The Savoy Hotel, before returning home to set up their first place of their own in 2021.
Though found at different ends of the scale - Coupette from the new school, and the American Bar from the old - one thing is key to both; exceptional service.
Walk into Schofield’s and you feel instantly looked after. Not in an insincere, big smiles, no substance way. But in the way you might quite rightly trust important jobs to a professional.
Staff (the bar’s very own manager Rachel Orange somehow missing out on the Bartender of the Year award this year) float around, eagle-eyed, knowing what you want before you do - that freezer move being a case in point.
Always there with advice, should you be unable to decide what to drink, these folk aren’t showy, hurling shakers around or performing toe-curling impromptu poetry like Tom Cruise in Cocktail.
They just know what they’re doing. And whether you want something classic or something with a slightly modern twist, not to mention a Guinness - they do some of the absolute best in the city - they’ve got you.
And there’s something very comforting about that. Long may it reign.
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