Cocktails

• The best London cocktails from the Spirited Awards 2016

  We got in touch with some of the winners to ask them for their recommendation for the must-have drinks from their lists at the moment.

• London's Dandelyan Bar is popping up in Virgin's Heathrow Clubhouse

  

  As if there wasn't enough of a reason to head to New York, a new collaboration between Virgin Airways and Dandelyan – the critically acclaimed bar at Mondrian makes the whole trip a must-do. Awarded Worlds Best Cocktail Menu at Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards last week and Best Bar Team in London by Time Out, Ryan Chetiyawardana has put together a series of cocktails to be served up at Virgin Atlantic's London Heathrow Clubhouse.

  Ryan's series of

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• Little Bird Gin are having a Bankside pop-up this summer

  

  On the eternal quest for London’s best gin and tonic? Try Bankside this summer. Boutique distillers Little Bird Gin are joining forces with The Distillery bar at the Hilton Bankside hotel to create The Little Garden, a whimsical al fresco gin pop-up.

  You might have tasted a Little Bird Gin cocktail at their regular spot at Maltby Street Market, but for those who haven’t had the pleasure - they create London Dry gin in small batches, using botanicals such

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• ROKA Charlotte Street launches a kaiseki cocktail pairing menu

  

  We've long had wine pairing and then there was beer pairing - now London is seeing a new-ish trend for restaurants to pair food with cocktails. We recently tried the cocktail pairing menu at the Clove Club Bar. And now there's another intriguing combination in Fitzrovia with Rokas Shochu launching a Kaiseki Cocktail Pairing Menu next week.

  The seven course menu of small dishes has been worked on by the ches in conjunction with the bar team. Diners

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• Sager and Wilde have opened an Old Fashioned cocktail bar

  

  So Sager + Wilde Paradise Row are launching an Old Fashioned (the drink AND the style) cocktail bar up on their Mezzanine level, and if that wasn't enough to get you down there pronto, just feast your eyes on the cocktail list they've knocked up.

  • Classic Old Fashioned
  • Olive Oil Old Fashioned
  • Toasted Coconut Old Fashioned
  • Burnt Maple Old Fashioned
  • Tonka Bean & Rooibos Old Fashioned

  Alongside

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• Below The Smoke bar opens under Rok in Shoreditch

  

  It's been quite a while in the planning but the downstairs bar at Rok in Shoreditch is now officially ready to go. The a new 24 seat bar space will open this month and here's what you need to know:

  They have an ace mixologist on the job - the seasonal cocktail menu is designed by Matt Whiley.

  The food may have a touch of Ikea about it but it also sounds like perfect bar snacks - such as duck pate with fermented

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• White Lyan are having a "wine bar pop-up" at Lantana Cafe in Shoreditch

  

  You may have been reading about White Lyan's revolutionary new 'wine' offering - the revolution being that they don't actually grapes to make it. Instead the team have been creating drinks based on taking the "flavour profile" of wine and deconstructing it, and then rebuilding it.

  Now they're planning a five day pop up "wine bar". Lyan Cellars will run run for five days next week at Lantana Cafe in Shoreditch. And they've brought in Doug McMaster of Brighton

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• JaguarShoes Collective are popping up After Hours at Manze on Chapel Market

  

  JaguarShoes Collective are expanding their empire further north, taking over pie and mash spot Manze on Chapel Market for two months. Every evening the beautiful art deco cafe will transform into a cocktail speakeasy. They'll be serving up prohibition era style cocktails with a modern twist - such as Hanky Panky - Gin, Sweet Vermouth, Fernet Branca Menta. They're also promising plenty of oysters too. If you're heading out after work, head down there

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• Whisky bar Black Rock comes to Shoreditch from the people behind Worship Street

  

  Updated 10/3/16 with a look at the menu

  It's all about the whisky at the moment - with incoming news that the same people behind the Worship Street Whistling Shop are opening Black Rock, a whisky bar in Shoreditch. 

  In that bar, we're to expect a stripped-back space with "a hip-hop, electro-funk soundtrack". But the centrepiece - in a big reference to the aging process -

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• Carl Clarke is opening Chinese Restaurant Syndrome under Chick n Sours

  

  Hot Dinners Exclusive

  We're big fans of Chick 'n' Sours, Carl Clarke's great chicken restaurant in Dalston and if you haven't been in to try that Szechuan Aubergine, which we

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• Oblix at The Shard launches new American history bar menu

  

  “Woah, awesome corridor,” exclaimed a visiting Yank, perfectly on cue, as we walked down the shadowy passage and into the sleek interior of Oblix. The floor-to-ceiling windows and low lighting perfectly frame the lights of London beneath. If you’ve come for the view, you’ll return for the impressive new bar menu. All of the cocktails are inspired by America’s history - whether that be “geographical, historical,

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• Patty & Bun take over the Stockpot site on Soho's Old Compton Street

  

  Updated 14/1 with more news

  Lots more info about the new opening has been revealed...

  • New dishes for the menu include:
    • Roast Chicken skin with maple syrup and Patty&Bun’s home made hotsauce
    • Fried Chicken with Urfa chilli butter and lemon
  • The bar menu is by Berber & Q’s head bartender, Danny Varley and
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• Imbibery cocktails launch delivery service with Quiqup

  

  So this is a neat idea. If you want to fully embrace the joy of living in a big city with all the mod cons that entails, we give you cold pressed cocktail deliveries.

  Yes Imbibery are making cold-pressed cocktails with Belvedere Vodka which you can now order to be delivered to your sofa through Quiqup, in under 40 minutes. Best of all (or should that be most dangerously of all) they deliver till midnight most nights and 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.

  The

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• Clarendon Cocktail Cellar opens underneath The Artist Residence in Pimlico

  

  Pimlico is getting a new bar - and the bar snacks don't sound half bad. The Clarendon Cocktail Cellar is a new drinking hole underneath the Artist Residence hotel (the name refers to the pub that used to occupy the site).

  Expect all manner of art-inspired cocktails denoted by the artwork on the drinks coaster they're served with. So with Georges Seurat’s ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ the drink will be gin, lemon, Oleo Saccharum, tea,

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• Machine No 3 neighbourhood bar to open in Hackney

  

  Opening its doors on Hackney's Well Street this week is Machine No. 3 - a brand new neighbourhood bar from the folk behind The Three Compasses in Dalston.

  The 70-seater bar will be cocktail-focused with drinks ranging from the Smoky Tommy - Gusano Rojo Mezcal, Agave, Lime (£7) to Black Feather - Baron de Sigognac VS, Lillet Blanc, Sec, Peach Bitters (£8). There'll also be wide range of craft beer (expect to see pale ale served up by brand new Dalston brewery

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