Chef Marcus Wareing opens London cocktail bar

British chef Marcus Wareing has opened a cocktail bar at the newly revamped Gilbert Scott restaurant in King’s Cross, directly applying his culinary expertise to the world of drinks for the first time.

Chef Marcus Wareing

Called George’s Bar, a further nod to the buildings original architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, the bar will deliver a food and drink menu whereby “simple things are done well and complicated things made deliciously simply”.

Sir Gilbert Scott was an eminent Victorian architect known for his Gothic Revival style and most chiefly associated with the design and build of churches and cathedrals; however, the three bodies of work for which he is best known are the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (1861), St Pancras Renaissance Hotel (1873), where The Gilbert Scott restaurant is based, and the Albert Memorial (1872), for which Queen Victoria knighted him.

The launch follows a redesign of the bar at The Gilbert Scott restaurant, in conjunction with David Collins Studio, with the aim of bringing in a more “informal design” that references the tradition of European grand cafés within one of London’s most iconic 19th century venues – The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.

Bar manager Dav Eames will curate a drinks list that will include wines offered at The Gilbert Scott, as well as selected craft beers, a number of homemade tonic infusions, as well as a range of bespoke cocktails.

The signature sip of March, marking the launch of the bar, will be the Bee Keeper – made with lavender-infused Bombay Sapphire gin, Melfort Farm honey, sloe gin, lemon, hibiscus and elderflower – a hat tip to Wareing’s honey produced at his Melfort Farm in Kent, and is also the first of the farm’s produce to be used within the Marcus Wareing group.

The newly revamped George’s Bar at The Gilbert Scott Restaurant in St Pancras