The Best New Bars in London
SWIFT
The Swift team has opened a bar on Great Eastern Street. Swift Shoreditch is the follow-up to Soho’s multi-award-winning Swift. The new place is open from 8am on weekdays and 11am on weekends, serving artisanal coffee and brunch-style dishes (such as Neal’s Yard Dairy toasties; and wild mushrooms with parmesan and egg yolk on St John’s sourdough) alongside Swift’s top-drawer cocktails. With a similar aesthetic to the ground floor of the Soho original, Swift Shoreditch is an elegant hangout with art-deco touches and plenty of greenery. Aperitif-style cocktails – including the team’s renowned spritzes, sgroppinos and Irish coffees – are available into the evening.
93 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 3H
Visit BarSwift.com
KREIDEL
Recently launched by Yann Florio – a MasterChef: The Professionals finalist in 2019 – and events guru Graham Brittain, this new space in Hoxton isn’t just a bar. It’s also a kitchen, events space and media studio. At its heart, however, is a wine and cocktail bar that’s hitting a whole bunch of trends: foraged ingredients, seasonal menus, low ABVs – you’ll find them all here. Keen? Book one of Kreidel’s six booths – each seating up to four – or grab a stool at the bar itself. Throughout your stay, you’ll get complimentary canapés, carefully paired to individual drinks.
227-229 Hoxton Street, Hoxton, N1 5LG
Visit Kreidel.co.uk
SILO WINE BAR
Zero-waste restaurant Silo has relaunched as Silo Wine Bar, with chef-founder Douglas McMaster creating an all-new zero-waste drinks menu. The wine list is loaded with minimum-intervention wines from small, artisanal producers such as Sussex-based Ben Walgate of Tillingham Wines and Gut Oggau from Austria’s Burgenland region. Silo’s neighbour, Crate Brewery, has supplied an array of beers to complement the food menu, while a new cocktail list has been put together by award-winning bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana, who draws heavily on spirits sourced from Copenhagen grain-to-bottle distillery Empirical Spirits. Silo Wine Bar is initially open in the evening from Thursday through Saturday and for lunch on Saturday and Sunday.
Queens Yard, Hackney Wick, E9 5EN
Visit SiloLondon.com
STONEY STREET
Alex Hely-Hutchinson’s Borough Market restaurant now transforms into a wine bar in the evening. ‘Stoney Street by Night’ showcases natural wines from across the world – sourced from acclaimed suppliers including Modal Wines and Les Caves de Pyrene – alongside a selection of small plates. Available every evening from Wednesday to Saturday, guests will be able to enjoy a variety of signature snacks such as honey sweet melon with prosciutto; and lamb merguez sausage wrapped in filo and served with peach chutney. Working with artisanal wine suppliers, there is also a short, considered list of wines available by the glass and bottle. For anyone in search of something a little stronger, the cocktail menu runs from classic negronis and G&Ts to the more daring Tarragon Collins and Frangelico Sour.
2-3 Stoney Street, Borough, SE1 9AA
Visit 26Grains.com
SILVER LINING
Thwarted by the pandemic, Silver Lining opened in July as an orange wine shop. Last week, it belatedly widened its doors to take its rightful place as the UK’s first orange wine bar. Guests can choose from more than 50 orange wines (aka white wines that have had the grape skins left on and thus taken on bolder flavours and a more amber hue), served alongside a menu of classic French dishes made with ingredients sourced hyperlocally – look out for the duck rillettes and saucisson sec.
Right now, Silver Lining is open until 10pm Wednesday to Saturday and until 8pm on Sundays. Tables can be booked for a maximum of six, of course.
13 Morning Lane, Hackney, E9 6ND
Visit SilverLiningE9.com
CROSSROADS
The neighbourhood bar Camden has been waiting for opened in August. Once again, zero-waste principles are to the fore at Crossroads, but don’t get in the way of a fine cocktail menu. Signature serves include Remember The Name (a highball of cherry scotch, chinato and cherry soda), Black Cardinal (a smoky negroni of gin, Campari and lapsang souchong tea) and Pepper (an old fashioned-style cocktail of rye, black pepper and vetiver). Bar bites will keep the wolf from the door, but the focus is really on the drinks here – there’s a wine list full of small, independent producers.
Junction of Royal College Street & Camden Road, Camden, NW1 9NN
Visit Crossroads.bar
BLACK BOOK
Master sommeliers Gearoid Devaney and Xavier Rousset have joined forces to open Black Book, a Soho bar that uses Coravin devices to offer an extensive by-the-glass wine list that spans known classics to rare gems. Devaney and Rousset have tapped up industry pals and private collectors to be able to offer coveted vintages at below-average prices. Meanwhile, the kitchen delivers brasserie-style dishes such as roasted onglet with peppercorn and handcut chips, with half a dozen Maldon rock oysters available as an opening flourish to your evening.
23 Frith Street, Soho, W1D 4RR
Visit BlackBookSoho.co.uk
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