Blood Orange Bar Review: Six Reviews and a Vivid Name
Blood Orange Bar Review: Six Reviews and a Vivid Name | A 4.8 from six people, and a name doing everything the generic ones fail to do: it is specific, sensory and memorable
Tag: cocktail bar london
Nickel Bar Review: The Metal Is Named After a Goblin
Nickel Bar Review: The Metal Is Named After a Goblin | German miners found an ore that looked like copper and yielded none, blamed a mischievous spirit, and called it devil’s copper
Drift Review: The Word Is About Losing Control Slowly
Drift Review: The Word Is About Losing Control Slowly | A drift is what happens when you stop steering – and every single meaning of the word is about the same thing
Naked and Famous Review: The Bar Is Named After the Drink
Naked and Famous Review: The Bar Is Named After the Drink | A cocktail of four equal parts, invented in New York in 2011, has had a bar named after it – which is the wrong way round
Mind Palace Review: The Memory Trick Is Two Thousand Years Old
Mind Palace Review: The Memory Trick Is Two Thousand Years Old | Sherlock made it famous. A Greek poet invented it after a roof fell on a dinner party and crushed everyone beyond recognition.
Astro Cocktail Bar Review: A 5.0 From 790 – The Impossible Score
Astro Cocktail Bar Review: A 5.0 From 790 – The Impossible Score | A cocktail bar holding a perfect 5.0 across nearly 800 reviews, a near-impossible achievement in the ratings game
Smith’s Bar Review: The Commonest Name in Britain, and It Is a Job
Smith’s Bar Review: The Commonest Name in Britain, and It Is a Job | One in every hundred people in this country is a Smith, and every one of them is descended from somebody who worked metal
Ginger Lily Review: The Plant Is Not a Lily and Not Ginger
Ginger Lily Review: The Plant Is Not a Lily and Not Ginger | It is in the ginger family, it looks like neither, and it is one of the most invasive species on earth
Drop Kensington Review: The Smallest Unit of Drinking
Drop Kensington Review: The Smallest Unit of Drinking | A drop is the tiniest measure of liquid – and ‘a drop of something’ is one of the fondest phrases in the language of drink
Library Bar Review: The Word Means a Place for Bark
Library Bar Review: The Word Means a Place for Bark | Liber is the inner bark of a tree, because that is what they wrote on before paper – and it is also the word for free
1871 Bar Review: The Year of the Bank Holiday
1871 Bar Review: The Year of the Bank Holiday | Twenty-nine reviews and a year for a name – and 1871 is the year Parliament decided the British were allowed a day off
The Leopard Bar Review: A Heraldic Cat With No Local Spots
The Leopard Bar Review: A Heraldic Cat With No Local Spots | A 4.3 hotel cocktail bar named after an animal that has never set foot in Bloomsbury, in the grand tradition of the heraldic beast
Kiss Review: The X for a Kiss Was a Signature
Kiss Review: The X for a Kiss Was a Signature | Illiterate people signed documents with a cross, and then kissed it to swear the oath, and that is where it came from
Thirsty Farrier Review: 4.9, and a Farrier Is Not a Blacksmith
Thirsty Farrier Review: 4.9, and a Farrier Is Not a Blacksmith | One shoes horses, one makes iron, and the distinction has been a professional grievance for eight hundred years
Forge Review: A 3.9, and the Word Means to Make and to Fake
Forge Review: A 3.9, and the Word Means to Make and to Fake | You forge iron and you forge a signature, and it is the same word, and the double meaning is not an accident
Ricco Review: 4.8 From 144, and the Formula Holds Again
Ricco Review: 4.8 From 144, and the Formula Holds Again | A small room, a short list, and somebody who knows – for the fortieth time in two surveys
Baudry Greene Review: 4.8, and Two Names Nobody Will Explain
Baudry Greene Review: 4.8, and Two Names Nobody Will Explain | One hundred and sixty-seven people, a very high score, and a name that we have added to the unsolved list
Kosmopol Review: A Name Built From the Word for Citizen of the World
Kosmopol Review: A Name Built From the Word for Citizen of the World | Cosmopolitan means citizen of the cosmos, of the whole world. It is also, of course, a very famous cocktail.
Hux Bar Review: A Short, Sharp, Modern Name
Hux Bar Review: A Short, Sharp, Modern Name | Hux is punchy, memorable and slightly mysterious – a good example of the modern taste for the short, invented-sounding name
Simmons Bar Review: 4.8, and the Cheapest High Score in London
Simmons Bar Review: 4.8, and the Cheapest High Score in London | Two thousand three hundred people, a 4.8, and a ten-to-twenty-pound price band – which should not be possible
Cosy Review: Hygge Was Sold Back to Us as a Candle
Cosy Review: Hygge Was Sold Back to Us as a Candle | The Danish word means a room where nobody is performing, and it arrived in Britain as a range of soft furnishings
Double Standard Review: A Bar Named After Its Own Hypocrisy
Double Standard Review: A Bar Named After Its Own Hypocrisy | A 4.1 bar with a wittily self-aware name, borrowing the phrase for applying different rules to different people
Anthologist Review: An Anthology Is a Bunch of Flowers
Anthologist Review: An Anthology Is a Bunch of Flowers | Anthos, flower. Logia, gathering. The Greeks called a collection of poems a bouquet, and they were right.
Lyaness Review: One of the Best Bars in the World, on a Roundabout
Lyaness Review: One of the Best Bars in the World, on a Roundabout | A 4.6, a genuinely serious list, and a room that treats the ingredients as the concept rather than the decoration
Oriole Review: The Bird Is Named After the Colour Gold
Oriole Review: The Bird Is Named After the Colour Gold | Aureolus, golden. The golden oriole is one of the most beautiful birds in Europe and almost nobody in Britain has seen one.
Be At One Lyceum Review: Flair Is Harder Than It Looks
Be At One Lyceum Review: Flair Is Harder Than It Looks | Throwing a bottle over your shoulder is a genuine skill, a genuine risk, and a genuine argument inside the trade
High Spirit Review: A Pun That Does Double Duty
High Spirit Review: A Pun That Does Double Duty | High spirits means good cheer; a spirit is what’s in the bottle. This cocktail bar’s name works on both levels at once
The Beauchamp Review: A French Name the English Refuse to Pronounce
The Beauchamp Review: A French Name the English Refuse to Pronounce | It is spelled Beauchamp and said ‘Beecham’, because England imported the Normans’ words and then flattened them
Revery Bar Review: A Beautiful Old Word for Daydreaming
Revery Bar Review: A Beautiful Old Word for Daydreaming | Revery is an archaic spelling of reverie – a state of pleasant, drifting daydream. It is a lovely name for a bar.
Reunion Bar Review: The Warm Idea of Coming Together Again
Reunion Bar Review: The Warm Idea of Coming Together Again | A reunion is a coming-together-again – one of the warmest ideas there is, and a lovely thing to name a bar after