#GIBSON COCKTAIL PLUS#

On the menu is the Smoked Manhattan, made with Crown Royal Special Reserve, vanilla brandy and hickory syrup, served smoking inside a bell jar. Two-hundred bottles of bitters and syrups are showcased along the dim, candle-lit bar, each infused with fresh ingredients such as fennel, raisin or lavender. His drinks are multi-sensory with a depth of flavour, and all are created using his signature culinary approach. HeвЂ™s the kind of mad but amiable cocktail scientist everyone wants to hang out with, and many international chefs and mixologists come here to do just that. The bar itself is small вЂ“ just 35 seats вЂ“ and booking is recommended, although the gracious doorman will always try to get you in, while a flapper-style waitress takes care of the tables.ДЄddress: The Gibson, 44 Old Street, London Website: thegibsonbar.london Telephone: +44 20 7608 2774 Order: Gibson Martini ВЈ10ДЇrankie Solarik launched this bar on hip Queen Street West in 2008. Aside from the eponymous Gibson, the Electric Earl (gin and Earl Grey liqueur) and Angel Tears (birch-skin-infused RГ©my Martin with candied green-walnut paste) both have their fans, but the list keeps evolving. Pickled vegetables are its shtick, all kinds of them, along with compotes, cordials, powders, brines, syrups and macerated fruits, used in drinks that are as zany and visually arresting (served in a skull, a beehive, a top hat, an elephant) as they are alcoholically complex. Opened by Marian Beke (from Nightjar) and Rusty Cerven (ex-Connaught bar), this Art Deco-style Old Street hangout may have been named after the Gibson cocktail вЂ“ a dry Martini with a pickled onion вЂ“ but onions are by no means the only options here. Even if none of this is true, its charm is such that it makes you think it could be (first drink) probably is (second drink) no, wait, that it must be true, because, dammit, itвЂ™s the finest lilвЂ™ New York bar this side oвЂ™ the East River that yвЂ™ever did see (third drink).ДЄddress: Harrys New York Bar, 5 Rue Daunou, 75002 Paris, France Website:. Said to be the place where the Bloody Mary was invented, it may also be the birthplace of the Sidecar, the Monkey Gland and the White Lady. HarryвЂ™s became a favourite of the Lost Generation neither Hemingway nor Fitzgerald were too lost to find it on a regular basis. An entire Manhattan bar was packed into crates, shipped across the Atlantic and reconstructed here, off Avenue de lвЂ™OpГ©ra, in time to open on Thanksgiving Day 1911.

If the New York-style interior вЂ“ mahogany panels, college pennants вЂ“ looks strangely authentic, thatвЂ™s because it is strangely authentic. Now read: the best bars in London right now

ItвЂ™s all the work of Chris Moore, who headed up the SavoyвЂ™s Beaufort Bar but fancied a change of pace and scene вЂ“ so drinks are mixed speedily, the menu is a Brothers Grimm-style work of art, and the centime-lined counter has become a favourite gathering spot for off-duty bartenders.ДЄddress: Coupette, 423 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 0AN Telephone: +44 20 7729 9562 Website: .uk Prices: Cocktails from ВЈ9 These are drinks relatively untouched by most London bars, so itвЂ™s best to familiarise yourself with the flavour profiles by ordering a small glass of both brandy and cidre, boilermaker style, before taking the plunge into such wondrous concoctions as Second Time Around (calvados, bee pollen, dessert wine) or Room with a View (calvados, muscat, amer, eau de noix), as well as other unjustly neglected Gallic serves. London, UK This being the East End, вЂapples and pearsвЂ™ usually means something else, but at this Bethnal Green boite it means calvados, cider and poirГ©. Read more from Luciole's Tony Conigliaro on cocktail trends 2018 When the light fades, the significance of the name вЂ“ French for firefly вЂ“ becomes clear, as a swarm of chandelier bulbs imparts a golden glow to proceedings.ДЄddress: Luciole, 14 Place du Solencon, 16100 Cognac, France Prices: Cocktails about ВЈ7.50 Telephone: +33 5 45 81 70 11 Website: Drinks are impeccable, whether cognac-based riffs on the Old Fashioned and the Harvard, or funkier inventions such as the Avignon (which arrives in a frankincense-smoked glass). ItвЂ™s run by Tony Conigliaro (LondonвЂ™s 69 Colebrooke Row, Bar Termini). If you need convincing, a visit to this elegant, uncomplicated bar by the banks of the Charente should do the trick. Now those same drinkers are discovering that itвЂ™s actually one of the most deliciously flexible of ingredients.

#GIBSON COCKTAIL PLUS#

Cognac, France Long considered the ne plus ultra of spirits, in recent times cognac came to be associated, in the addled minds of drinkers, with bellowing retired majors and balloon glasses.