Let’s start with a refined drink…
At the Punch Room in London’s Edition hotel, spotting celebs and the like and feeling so very chic. Order one of their punch bowls and ladle out the cocktail to your heart’s content (their punches go a long way) setting you up nicely for the evening ahead. With some of the best bar staff we’ve met in years you’ll be booking your return visit.
Moving onto the bonkers Simmons…
You can pretend you’re being refined sipping cocktails from teacups but you haven’t fooled us. Simmons’ Kings Cross outpost lays on their ‘Happy Hour’ for a mere 5 hours so make sure to get there before 9 to take advantage of the criminally cheap drinks. We advise their teapot-served Coffee Pot, a jumbo-sized espresso martini.
Taking your drinks seriously…
At The Whistling Shop in Shoreditch. Famed for their inventive ways (and making most of their drinks on-site for added gravitas) expect lapsang tea mixed with marmalade vodka. It’s everything a cocktail bar should be and we’ll steer you towards Bread of Heaven; wheat beer, banana and clove vinegar, citrus, egg white and toasted poppy and sesame seeds. Why, of course.
Calm it down at 214 Bermondsey…
Go underground and celebrate gin like never before. Maybe not one for the girls (Mother’s Ruin and all that) order her a martini with a recommendation to drink it slowly. In the meantime, you can make your way through the 50 varieties of gin on offer and order in from the Italian upstairs if sustenance is needed. Lighting is not their strong point so fuzzy faces go un-noticed whilst you try to sober up.
Onto a game of billiards in Soho…
Mark’s Bar welcomes you with a big, late-night, sexy hug. It’s all New York hipster hangout and you might have to wrestle to get a game on their billiards table but it’s Mark Hix’s revelatory bar snacks that lure us here after hours. Available until 1am, the baked bone marrow on toast will satisfy the boys and fish fingers with mushy peas for the girls. Onto the next!
Dancing it off at the Rum Kitchen…
You might be tired of drinking by now but unsurprisingly the Rum Kitchen serves…rum. The mojitos are marvellous though so stock up and head downstairs for some late night dancing. The crowd are hot so please do bring your A-game. You don’t want to stick out for all the wrong reasons.
