Charlie Hope - Secret London For Drinkers
Charlie Hope, promoter of our bar industry shindig The Players, on where to spend your time drinking.
In a rum mood...?
If in a rum mood here’s where to go. For rum tasting with an authentic, laid back rum drinking vibe try Cotton’s in Camden owned by one of the UK’s leading rum aficionados, Ian Burrell. West London’s Trailer Happiness is also good, or our bar, AKA. AKA stock a big range of rums. An aged rum like Appleton VX is my favourite, over ice, with a few squeezes of fresh lime.
www.cottons-restaurant.co.uk
www.trailerh.com
Best for tequila drinking...
A great bar for tequila tasting and highly knowledgeable tequila personnel is East London’s Green and Red (it’s also an East End bar where you can stand to hang out without cringing at the Shoreditchness of the clientele). The bar staff are always lovely and happy to chat tequila. Try the La Cucaracha cocktail or the watermelon margarita.
For some old school glamour...
Ronnie Scott’s upstairs bar feels like you’ve just slunk into a velvety dark cornered saloon bar in the 1940s or 50s. Even the bar staff and the glasses they serve drinks in look the part. The DJ plays old loungey jazz records and the martinis look and taste beautiful. You know Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, well if they lived in London this is where they would hang out.
One-off parties...
Alcohol parties and events are frequent in this city if you know where to look. Not only are they usually brilliantly inventive (I think that maybe the brands easy access to alcohol gives them extra super imaginations for these things, plus the bottle to pull it off) but you get to try lovely cocktails. For example, Wray & Nephew do reggae parties and rum punch in the summer with the Trojan Soundsystem at places like Cargo and 93 Feet East. Also Hendrick’s gin who throw quintessentially old school English summer parties like last year’s Chaps Olympiad involving croquet, three-legged races, and dressing in monocles and twirly moustaches. Monkey Shoulder whiskey host evenings where qualified gents chat about everything from cigar etiquette to the art of seduction.
For some late night drinking...
Even though we still keep getting told the whole country is going to the dogs since 24 hour drinking was introduced, finding a late night drink without going to a full on club in our nation’s capital after 3am is still tricky (unless your local does lock-ins…or there’s that wicked Spanish cellar bar that plays flamenco 24 hours a day and people dance on the tables just off Tottenham Court Road, but I’ll never reveal where, never). There’s Tinseltown in Farringdon, which although not for the drink snob, is a place that’s good in the early hours with American diner style choc chip alcoholic milkshakes. Or of course there’s AKA. I am biased but AKA is just a really great bar! In fact I've asked a few people for good late night bars and we can't think of any...only two bars in the whole of London is ridiculous...if you do know anywhere else which is open late please let me know!
www.tinseltown.co.uk
www.akalondon.com
Published: 10/03/2008
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