Hot new London bar openings: August

Escargot botanicals bar

Soho institution L’Escargot has opened a pop-up botanicals bar in collaboration with tonic maker Fentimans for the month of August. The Salon Noir on the top floor of the members’ club has been transformed into a Victorian greenhouse brimming with botanicals, which are used to make the cocktails.

Created by mixologist Matt Preedy, among the libations on offer, costing an almost Victorian £7 each, are the Curiosity, blending Bourbon, orange zest and a Fentimans Curiosity Cola reduction; and the Lillet Rose, featuring Lillet Blanc and Fentimans Rose Lemonade. Three golden snails will be hidden around the botanical bar, which, if unearthed, can be exchanged for a cocktail.

Nylon

Hot on the heels of aviation-themed chippy “Come Fry With Me” comes Nylon, an aviation-themed lounge bar at the O2 sponsored by Virgin Atlantic and Delta. Hoping to recreate the buzz of checking into a first class lounge (ah, that familiar feeling) Nylon pays homage to the New York to London route and aims to “encapsulate the glamour of international jet-setting”.

With a pared down modern design, the bar specialises in classic cocktails like the Manhattan, Whiskey Sour and Tom Collins, but also offers a playful list that tips its hat to the Mile High theme, including the Aviation, Transatlantic, Flying Lady, Maiden Voyager, Atlanta and Cropduster. Food meanwhile, runs the gamut from New York-inspired cured meats to Billingsgate fish pie.

Showdown

American joint The Lockhart in Marylebone has transformed its downstairs bar into “Showdown”, an American-themed boozer inspired by the Deep South. Cocktails come courtesy of one of London’s most exciting and inventive mixologists, Matt Whiley, aka The Talented Mr. Fox, so expect the unexpected. Taking head chef Brad McDonald’s Southern food menu as a starting point, cocktails twist on American classics and include a riff on a Long Island Iced Tea served on tap made with milk washed moonshine and maple.

Shining a light on Bourbon and rye, among the drops on offer are a bottled Sazerac, the “Pick it Lick it”, which blends rye, pickled watermelon and house pecan soda; and the “Smoking Bandito”, featuring Tequila, corn, smoked hicory butter and lime. Hungry patrons can chow down on catfish goujons, shrimp & grits and Southern fried chicken.

Seymour’s Parlour

We can confirm that, sadly, this is not “wicked uncle Seymour” but affable Italian bar manager Claudio Perniell

Already being described as the next Chiltern Firehouse, the hotly anticipated, 24-room Zetter Townhouse Marylebone opens its doors this week. Taking over a Georgian townhouse on Seymour Street, cocktail bar Seymour’s Parlour is inspired by the fictitious figure of “Wicked Uncle Seymour”, an avid antiques collector and general cad about town.

Designer Russell Sage used Seymour as his muse when planning the interiors, which tip their hat to Sir John Soane’s museum in Holborn and include a collection of trinkets supposedly amassed during Seymour’s “grand tour” of Europe.

But what of the cocktails, you cry. With maestro Tony Conigliaro in charge, we’re in safe hands. Having dipped into the history books, cocktails have a Victorian twist and include the Turf Club, made with gin, Dubbonet, a grape reduction, Peruvian bitters and grass; and the Madeira Sour, which blends Cognac with flashed Madeira, lemon and walnut bitters. And if that wasn’t excitement enough, chef Bruno Loubet is behind the bar snacks.

One Two Two

French newcomer Le Chabanais in Mayfair, run by Basque chef Inaki Aizpitarte of Le Chateaubriand in Paris, has opened a “secret” cocktail bar, One Two Two, inspired by Paris’ golden age in the ‘20s and ‘30s. The menu dips back into the history books to bring you forgotten classics from both London and Paris with a contemporary twist. Many of the recipes are inspired by French apéritifs like Lillet, Byrrh, Noilly Prat, Dubonnet, and thus have a bitter edge.

The restaurant itself is named after one of the best known and most luxurious brothels in Paris that operated near the Louvre at 12 rue Chabanais between 1878 and 1946, which counted painter Toulouse-Lautrec, writer Guy de Maupassant, and actors Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart among its patrons.

Oriole

News comes to us that Rosie and Edmond Weil, the delightful founders of one of our favourite bars, the Nightjar in Old Street, are to open a second venue this year. Named Oriole after a brightly coloured bird with impressive burnt orange plumage found across Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia, the bar will take over the site of the Cock Tavern in Smithfield market.

Much larger than the Nightjar, the 120-seater space will host live music nights, while interiors will be “colonial tiki” chic – pineapples at the ready. Cocktails will have a broad focus, taking inspiration from unusual flavours found all over the world.