Bar Crawl: we check out Cato, a bar of two halves in Covent Garden

This is upstairs at Cato, aka The House of Julep

What can you tell us about Cato?

This is a brand new cocktail bar for Covent Garden that comes from hospitality group Bart & Taylor (also behind Mr Fox and Fern in Croydon) and they've brought in top bartender Angelos Bafas to be in charge of the drinks. Angelos is best known for having been behind the drinks at Nipperkin and Kioku Bar, both of which we think are excellent cocktail bars, so his involvement at Cato certainly sets expectations high. 

There are also two sides to Cato. On the ground floor, you'll find The House of Julep, pitched more as a pop-in tavern, while downstairs is Cato, much more of a traditional cocktail bar, dominated by a large aluminium mixology station. 

A couple of minutes from Covent Garden station, this is what you're looking for.

Where is it?

You'll find it on the corner of Mercer Street and Sheldon Street, no more than a few minutes' walk from Covent Garden station and just a few steps away from Arome Bakery.

What's notable about this area is that there really aren't that many full-on cocktail bars (other than Baudry Green, which is a different type of affair). So there's something of a captive market here and it will be extremely handy pre and post-theatre (it's open until 1am). It'll also be useful for anyone working in the Covent Garden area as the perfect late-night post-work hangout.

Let's start with upstairs, what can we expect there? 

Upstairs is The House of Julep and they tell us it's pitched as more of a local tavern. An easy place to drop into, even if it's just a quick cocktail at the bar, we can see this part of Cato being the part that people return to more often. It's a nice casual space and has a completely different menu to downstairs.

As the name suggests, the bar's speciality is the mint julep. The bar's name is taken from legendary 18th-century New York bartender Cato Alexander, who was apparently "America's first celebrity bartender". His speciality was the julep - he didn't create it, but it is the drink that's most associated with him. There are several versions available up here. 

But if juleps aren't your thing - that's only part of the menu. The bar also focuses on various smashes as well as their own takes on classic cocktails. So up here, you'll also find cocktails like a Sauercraut Martini, a mustard sour, a cheesecake clover club or a kimchi margarita. There's an awful lot to get through in the drinks menu at the House of Julep, which is why we can see it rewarding repeat visits. Here's what we had:

Up front, it's the London Mint Julep (bourbon, foraged elderflower liqueur, bitters, golden syrup, mint of the day, £16) and the Japanese Smash (shochu, yuzu sake, sugar, sour agent, shiso leaves). That shiso smash in particular was very, very good.

Both of these are excellent cocktails, and we also have an eye on their oyster martini on a return visit. 

Then, downstairs, it's a very different vibe, one that feels much more like a "proper" cocktail bar, for lack of 8a better expression:

Downstairs is where you'll find the main bar, Cato. 

Just out of view in that photo above (essentially behind and to the right of where we're taking the pic from) is a big aluminium bar/mixology station. If you're really into your cocktails, there are a few stools there, and it's where we decided to base ourselves. The bar itself is an impressive sight, but it's worth mentioning that many of the elements of the drinks are pre-batched, with the work of the bartender here putting the final touches on them. So although the cocktails are very intricate, they're not going to take an age to make.  

The theme downstairs is "Colour Has Flavour" and that's because the cocktails are inspired by synesthesia, where the senses of taste and vision overlap. The menu is divided into specific colours, and under each section, they're matched with the dominant flavour of the cocktail. So you'll find cocktails like Jalepeno and Shiso under "green" and chamomile and sweet clover under yellow. It's a much more experimental menu than the ground floor, and we can see this menu evolving into different concepts going forward. 

As for what we chose:

On the left, from the "White" section, it's Elverflower and Cheese (£17). That combines gin, vodka, their own "white spirit", elderflower dry mead and tincture and... a blend of British cheeses (with a little marinated cheddar in the glass). On the right is the Forced rhubarb and apple blossom (£15) - made with Ramsbury Single Estate vodka and an English fortified rose wine.

And is there food?

There is a small food menu and that's the one thing that's shared between both floors. You'll find larger dishes like a burger or a cheese toastie, but we think those are probably more suited to the laid-back House of Julep than at the main Cato bar. There, we'd say that the Cobble Lane meats with focaccia (£15) are probably a better pairing, or perhaps the oysters with mint and chilli mignonette (three for £12). 

Here's what we had:

Fried curried oysters with gooseberry mayo (three for £14) - these are fantastic, highly recommended. 

Mushroom tostadas (wild mushrooms, sriracha mayo, fried shallots, lime, £12) and popcorn fried chicken with spiced apricot sauce (£13). The tostadas in particular worked well with our cocktails. 

Overall thoughts

As we said earlier, there's nothing quite like Cato in this part of town, so it's already managed to carve out a pretty good niche for itself. Downstairs is a bit more of a destination cocktail bar, with some really inventive cocktails. That's well worth a visit, although we can see ourselves more likely to return to the House of Julep upstairs, which is an extremely handy bar to drop into in the area. We visited only a couple of days after it opened, but we can see this one getting a real audience, and not just from the post-theatre crowd.