Where to drink
If the Notting Hill Carnival isn’t your cup of tea, there are plenty of interesting venues across London at which to drink away the bank holiday. In Fitzrovia, for instance, the perennially popular Sanderson is keeping its courtyard terrace fresh with an especially a la mode pop-up. Named Sanderson Green, it’s serving laid-back, haute fast food American-style. It has put together a new cocktail menu including a selection of tipsy shakes, which distil the punch of a booze-lashed milkshake into a more polished beverage, complete with popping candy garnish.
In King’s Cross, mixology wizard Tony Conigliaro has collaborated with Bruno Loubet to create the cocktails at the chef’s newest venture, Grain Store. The exploded kitchen concept instils a New York buzz, and you can’t miss Loubet himself running the kitchen. Alongside traditional cocktails like Grain Store’s truffle martini, the bar also offers an array of refreshing Greco-Roman inspired spiced wines, which are available by the glass or the jug and are perfectly suited for warm weather.
Anyone who’s visited Seoul will know that Koreans are talented partiers. It makes sense, then, that Jubo has opened within the Bedroom Bar in Shoreditch. Revellers will now have the opportunity to down ice cold bottles of Hite beer whilst indulging in some of the finest fried chicken in the capital – it’s a revelation. The owners have created an array of house-infused shochus, with flavours including ginger, raspberry and blackberry, and chilli kimchi. The edgy, neon-lit room nods to its locale and lends itself to boisterous evenings.
If you prefer to drink in the Nipponese fashion, Shoryu Soho on Denman Street is the newest ramen concept rolled out by the Japan Centre, and they serve a mean tonkotsu. However, perhaps more notably for Japanophiles, the ground-floor bar at Shoryu offers Europe’s largest selection of sake, with over 120 bottles on the menu and tasting flights available, which are a killer introduction to a trending tipple.
Nearby in buzzing Kingly Court, Whyte and Brown, a restaurant that serves almost every permutation of chicken and egg, has launched with an industrial chic ground floor bar. Cocktails come compliments of master mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana, and the design is surprisingly airy and progressive, amalgamating floor-to-ceiling windows, pendant lighting, reclaimed timber flooring and distressed cabinets into a very hip space.
• Tim Badham is the founder of Innerplace, London’s personal VIP lifestyle concierge. www.innerplace.co.uk @innerplaceLDN