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Hot new London bar openings
Vinoteca City
Vinoteca always gets it right on the wine front, so we’re excited about its latest venture, a sixth site no less, at the shiny new Bloomberg Arcade.
Sharing space with burger joint Bleecker Street, dim sum specialist A. Wong and pizza purveyor Home Slice, Vinoteca City is headed up by chef Kieren Steinborn, who serves a weekly changing menu of seasonal delights from dawn till dusk. Wine takes centre stage here with over 200 drops on offer from all over the world in addition to craft beer and cocktails.
The site offers a selection of high-end ‘off piste’ wines at affordable price points in a wine ledger that’s updated weekly. Among the wines on the debut ledger are Huet Le Haut Lieu Sec Vouvray 1989; Grosset Gaia 2008; and Antonio Vallana Gattinara 1996 from Piedmont.
The Racketeer
King’s Cross has a cosy new cocktail pub with Victorian flourishes called The Racketeer whose midnight blue wallpaper we’re already in love with. Formerly The Carpenters Arms, the site boasts a wine shop selling drops from boutique producers around the globe.
Named after the notorious Saffron Hill mob, an infamous Victorian pickpocketing gang who made a racket to distract their victims before stealing their valuables, the Racketeer focuses on classic cocktails with contemporary twists.
Among those that have caught our eye are the Penicillin in a Storm, which blends Chivas Regal 12, Laphroaig 10, ginger syrup, lemon and a porter float; the Jaffa Collins, a marriage of Beefeater gin, lemon, orange bitters and San Pellegrino pompelmo; and the Black Spice, featuring Rittenhouse 100 Rye, PX Sherry, dry curaçao, Fernet Branca and a black pepper tincture.
Ceremony
While not technically a bar, Ceremony makes it into our round up due to the cocktail calibre of its owners. Billing itself as ‘a modern British restaurant with dishes that happen to be vegetarian’, this Tufnell Park newcomer is run by former Milk & Honey bartender Joe Stokoe and Ali Dedianko, creative director of London Beer Week and a former global brand ambassador for Belvedere.
Many of the restaurant’s ingredients are grown in its back garden. Expect the likes of crispy duck egg with wild mushrooms and wet polenta; and pappardelle with pea and celeriac. Among the cocktails are classics like Negronis, Bloody Marys and Manhattans and twists like the Rosemary Ricky.
Lantana Café
Adding to db’s already dizzying array of drinking and dining options near our office is Aussie export the Lantana Café a stone’s throw from Borough Market. With buzzing sites in Shoreditch, Camden and Fitzrovia, the London Bridge newbie is the fourth in the Lantana family.
Housed in a light-flooded 19th century building, the all-day café serves everything from avocado on toast and shredded duck tacos to Mauritian chilli cakes and spiced split pea falafel with tahini. On the cocktail front you’ll find the Lantana Mule and Hibiscus Collins alongside classics like the Negroni, Bloody Mary, Aperol Spritz and Espresso Martini.