It seems the latest craze for cocktails is to do away with sweet ones and instead to embrace bitter flavours. This was definitely seen at the London Cocktail Week French Themed close party at Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings.
All of these classic French aperitifs have a bitter edge – and then there was the absinthe…. :s
The green glow of the absinthe… Actually it’s just water in there, but it looks evil!!
The absinthe ritual Pernod style – water drips out of the green glow onto a sugar cube, dissolving it into the glass of absinthe below.
Now I didn’t try this – the thought of absinthe neat or almost neat turns my stomach, it’s not a flavour I like and whilst I conceed that it can work in a cocktail to pull flavours together (e.g. the bathtub gin punch – very nice!), it’s not the primary flavour I want to taste in a cocktail. For that reason I didn’t try the ritual or the Green Beast.
As I also don’t like the flavour of Ricard – too liquorice! I ended up trying the Suze and the Byrrh (pronounced beer). These were actually quite nice, both have the bitter taste that works well in a negroni, the Violet Negroni with Byrrh was my favourite drink. The Suze and tonic also worked for me – although it’s not going to knock gin off the top spot!
Ginormous ice blocks – they were carved up for the cocktails – very impressive!
Now I’ve discussed the drinks I’ll move on to the venue – the newly opened Bourne and Hollingsworth buildings is an offshoot from the speakeasy of the same name. It takes the cocktail making prowess from the original bar and adds food.
At the LCW close event we tried some of this – small spoons of boeuf bourginon, ratatouille, plates of cheese and ham, and finally miniature desserts. The theme was French due to the sponsors so I can’t judge the usual fare, but this was good!
The space is industrial on the outside and white painted, light and airy on the inside. There are a few eye drawing features such as the large fireplace, the bespoke tiled bar and the dark shuttered window into the private dining room, but the real catch comes out back in the conservatory.
Here the chairs are upholstered in fabrics patterned with ferns and flowers, this and the plants in the white and well lit space make it feel like you are out in the garden. This is also the area you see in all the publicity photos!
The staff are lovely too – the bar staff were very knowledgeable about the drinks and happy to talk us through the unusual ingredients and the serving staff were eager to make us happy – including the sole vegetarian!
After having our fill of the free bar Kat and I decided to head to one of her favourite bars – Megaro bar in Kings Cross.
They promised answers that I didn’t get!! But we had cocktails….
At Megaros Kat and I got in before they properly closed for a little lock in and had a boogie. They also had a French theme going on with the same bitter aspect prominent in the cocktails. When I say prominent, I mean the three I tried were all bitter. One I couldn’t drink at all.
Not a great success, but I’m sure their usual house cocktails are different and given that they are not that far from home I’m willing to go back to test this theory 🙂
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