So I’m sure that plenty of people know about speakeasies – hidden bars that you need a password to get into. These originated during the days of prohibition in the States when alcohol was outlawed and so bars needed to be sneaky about serving people and hide from the law.
Nowadays the main reason for them is to make you feel superior to people who aren’t in the know, oh what a feeling it is!
A friend had a recommendation for the new Breakfast Club ‘Secret Bar’ Call me Mr Lucky down in Borough – so of course we headed down to check it out.
To get into the bar you have to give the password when they come to seat you at the restaurant – I think the guy behind us in the queue was slightly bemused when the waitress had to go check it was open and when she came back we disappeared into the back of the restaurant.
We had to go into a door via the waitresses swipe card, down some stairs into the kitchen (well the pass area – not through the middle of it!) and back out another door, where we arrived in a magical world…. Aka a dark atmospheric basement bar decorated with numerous fairy lights.
We sat at the bar – but there are also a couple of booths tucked away behind it and some lower tables around the edge. All in all it’s not a huge space and they get rammed Thursday-Saturday. While you can’t officially book a space/table there’s no harm in asking 😉
The set up here is a little different from the original Breakfast Club speakeasy The Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town. As they have a small space and pack people in the cocktails are mainly pre mixed in drink bottles that just need fresh ingredient such as beer or soda adding before serving – making it a quick service.
We didn’t have to worry about that on a quiet Sunday early evening. The cocktail mix is varied with loads of interesting ingredients such as horseradish, beer (yes in a cocktail!) and house infused tequila and gin. We tried a couple each and some I liked more than others – however you couldn’t really tell straight from the menu so I’d recommend throwing caution to the wind and trying them out, however outlandish!
We also grabbed some food – the Lucky burger was good to me with its blue cheese sauce, my friend also enjoyed the buttermilk chicken burger, I would definitely get the burgers here again.
Because we had had a few drinks we decided that a bar crawl to the Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town was in order. So a 20 minute walk later (including getting lost in Spitalfields) we turned up at the Breakfast Club there and said the passcode.
The best bit when being lead through the fridge was the expressions and exclamations from diners in the restaurant ‘where are they going?’! This is where the superiority hit in! Unfortunately as you know pride comes before a fall…. My first cocktail soon wiped the smug smile off my face.
Now given my old skool iPhone (it was free so don’t knock it!) I couldn’t get a picture of the cocktail. (Edit found a pic! See below) Let’s just say that the rum cocktail came with a flaming side, guaranteed to burn your mouth in more than one way! The flaming scotch bonnet was a tasty shot, but even a sip set my mouth on fire.
Yes that is a Scotch Bonnet chilli…. Licking my lips shortly after was a bad idea 🙁
Rules for visiting the Mayor….
It’s definitely the season coming to closest yourself into the basement of one or both of these bars and try out the cocktail menu – go on, do it, but first you’ll need the pass codes!
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