Hacha, Dalston and Brixton
One for the agave-fans, Hacha's been serving up tequila and mezcal in Dalston for several years from a rotating collection of rarely-seen-in-the-UK bottles and an inventive cocktail menu. There's a second venue in Brixton now, with a similar vibe — simple and sun-flooded during the day, cosy and candlelit at night. Both bars come with kitchen residencies; in Dalston it's Tigre Tacos at time of writing, in Brixton it's Nopalito, both doing solidly good Mexican street food and small plates.
Hacha, Dalston and Brixton
The Sun Tavern, Bethnal Green
Many a debauched night's had the Sun as its launchpad. The hybrid lovechild of an Irish dive bar and a high-concept cocktail joint, with a late licence and a lot of poitín on the menu, the bar's from the same team behind the (also good) Umbrella Project in Shoreditch, and Discount Suit Company in Whitechapel. Expect good cocktails, surprisingly reasonably priced (for London, don't @ us) beer on tap, and (warning) limited bar snacks: you'll find yourself eating 14 tiny plates of anchovies in a vain attempt to offset their liberal way with whisky.
The Sun Tavern, Bethnal Green
Satan's Whiskers, Bethnal Green
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Divey meets romantic, Satan's Whiskers is all leathery dimly lit booths and a faintly seedy red-light feel. The little, dark-windowed spot on Cambridge Heath Road also joins the elite ranks of bars where you can ask for your martini dirty and they automatically make it filthy. A big list of their own signature serves, they're also good at the classics.
Satan's Whiskers, Bethnal Green
Louie, Covent Garden
Laissez les bons temps rouler at the Alligator Bar, the New Orleans-channelling bar hidden at the rooftop level of Louie. The terrace looks out over the London skyline, but the interiors (ceiling fans, warm lighting, scattered greenery and wicker, gilded statuettes), the regular live music evenings, and late licence could be straight out of Louisiana.
Louie, Covent Garden
Pamela, Dalston
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Scattered with Pamela Anderson-inspired artwork, the Kingsland Road bar's a lo-fi bar purveyor of good times, Colombian-influenced bar snacks, DJ sets, and some usually outstanding twists on classics — some of our favourites include the oat milk white Russian, the hibiscus michelada, a kiwi kind-of-margarita, and yuzu pickleback shooters. Lot of pet nat and big oranges on the menu for the natural wine-heads. Regular one-off kitchen takeovers from some of London's finest. A lot of things going on, basically, geared towards helping you live up to their motto: Be More Pamela.
Pamela, Dalston
Equal Parts, Hackney
You might think this part of east London, in the borderlands of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green, already has enough great neighbourhood bars for a lifetime's cocktail drinking. But this is incorrect: we needed one more. This one. From the brain of Michael Sager — of the also excellent Sager + Wilde nearby wine bar and Paradise Row restaurant — newcomer Equal Parts is serving high-precision cocktails in a low-pretension space. The decor and record collection, like the drinks, seem to be less a heavy-handed concept, and more curated around 'some things we like a lot'. On the drinks front, that includes riffs on classic cocktails around a regularly-changing ingredient — at time of writing that's artichoke infusions lacing delicately and beautifully bitterly through their negroni and sbagliato — and all-new creations like Il Mago, with amaro, blood orange and Scotch bonnet, or our favourite, the fino sherry/tomato/olive oil Flor, like a dirty martini filtered through a rainy Italian garden.
Equal Parts, Hackney
Freud Bar, Covent Garden
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Very much on the beaten track, on the edge of Soho, Freud still feels like a secret. Underneath a shop, there's very little giving it away from street level apart from the drinkers that sometimes pool at the bottom of the narrow stairwell during summer; even then, it looks more like a residential property that knows how to throw a good house party — and, tbf, that's also what it feels like inside. The Look is Cold War-era concrete bunker, with a minimalist line in decor but maximalism ruling the cocktail menu.
Freud Bar, Covent Garden
Kanpai, Peckham
A cocktail bar/taproom/sake brewery, look for the incandescent geisha mural splashed across the side of a warehouse in Copeland Park (home also to the Bussey Building). Head up a flight of industrial stairs, and you're greeted by a library of sake bottles, plus taps of draught sake, small, seasonal batches from their in-house list, a good range of Japanese beer, and a selection of sake cocktails.
Kanpai, Peckham.
Coupette, Bethnal Green
A very fancy bar menu in a neighbourhoody, faintly divey setting, Coupette's a French-influenced spot where the Frenchness takes the form of a penchant for Calvados — both solo and in their highly-wrought cocktails — cider, some decadent bar snacks, and a louche elegance scattering everything from the glassware to the lighting. Cocktails lean towards the high-concept, but they'll happily make the classics on request.
Coupette, Bethnal Green
Servant Jazz Quarters, Dalston
Servant Jazz would be a good drinking spot in its own right — shadowy, lowkey, good at the classic cocktails. The fact it also has a tiny downstairs gig venue, host to some outstanding nights, including the red-lit, hazily dreamlike Beirut Groove Collective, is just bonus content.
Servant Jazz Quarters, Dalston
Zapoi, Peckham
It took us several visits to Zapoi before we clocked it for an all-vegan bar; it wears its ethos lightly. Equally good if you're committed to aquafaba-topped pisco sours, or if you just want a great cocktail with a chaotically-decorated, old-Savannah-garden-party backdrop. Determinedly lo-fi, it's no reservations, no real website that we can unearth, find it at 138 Rye Lane.
Zapoi, Peckham
Bar Termini, Soho
For lovers of train stations, negronis, cured meat served up in delicate slices and un-delicate volume on brown greaseproof paper, Italian snacks fierce espresso — all the good stuff — Bar Termini looks like a classic Italian railway station café. Infamous for their bottle-aged negronis, served in tiny, ornate glasses throwing back to 20s Rome, but nonetheless a great place to come if you're not drinking alcohol; we've actually spent more time drinking their cioccolato (70% chocolate, splash of velvety steamed milk) or their bicerin (espresso, chocolate, hot milk), both outstanding after-work pitstop options.
Bar Termini, Soho
The Last Tuesday Society, Hackney
Conceived as an absinthe parlour, though in reality a great cocktail bar covering a lot of spirits, the in-house bar at The Last Tuesday Society was founded a few years back by Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett — the now-owners of Devil's Botany, London's first 21st century absinthe distillery. Expect an eclectic cocktail list, regular events — B-movie screenings, lectures on occult London, deep dives on topics like the influence of hallucinatory drugs on the development of psychological research. In the basement of the bar you'll find the Viktor Wynd Museum Of Curiosities, a trippy collection of the mysterious, the beautiful, and the ugly housed in a small, crammed warren of rooms. Probably easier to show than to describe.
A London Museum Unlike Any Other from Londonist on Vimeo.
The Last Tuesday Society, Hackney
Assorted martinis
Like many of us, Londonist's feature editor Will Noble enjoys a good martini: crisp as an Arctic skinny dip, intoxicating as a Tchaikovsky ballet. The jury is out on London's Best Ever Martini (and perhaps half the fun is the endless search for it), but let's at least narrow it down to the best three we've supped thus far. It is no coincidence that DUKES, Connaught Bar and Library Bar all work in a good trolley show; far more than ostentatious theatrics, this is where you get to pow-wow with your cocktail's maker, pick up tips, and let's face it, see where your hard-earned dosh is going. DUKES is the most famous — the server rinsing the glass with vermouth before tipping it onto the well-oiled carpet, then filling the chiled glass to the brim with viscous Sacred gin. The Connaught's spin is to offer you a card dabbed with various bitters to smell (a la at the perfume section of an airport Duty Free), before choosing which is dropped into your drink. White-tuxed trolley drivers at Library Bar steer you through a, well, library of martinis ranging from the house, to an apricot vesper. All three experiences come with aristocratic trimmings; antique lampshades, equestrian oil paintings, the faint sense of imposter syndrome. All offer martini variations so delicious and boozy, for a good few moments, you'll forget London exists. Since we reviewed it in 2018, it appears Library Bar has gone all membersy — but certainly the other two bars are open to anyone of legal drinking age who is not wearing flip-flops — and even better, do not take bookings. Show up, and if it's prime time, be prepared to work up a thirst. It'll be worth it.
