ISSUE 21
AUTUMN 2016
London Pride
Serving drinks in style Capital choices
From London’s drinks history to its award-winning bars
Honouring Dick Bradsell
The man who made cocktails in the capital cool
+ La Dolce Vita at the Connaught Bar
ISSN 2052 0603
IN-tro
MASTER CRAF TSMAN
M AV E R I C K PERNICKETY
DEVIANT
ECCENTRIC
GENIUS All words used to describe one man. Dick Bradsell. Ask anyone in the know, who they believe was responsible for giving London its cool cocktail capital status and 10 out of 10 will cite Dick Bradsell. You may not have known him but you're sure to have enjoyed one of his drinks: ever sipped an Espresso Martini? That's one of his. The Bramble and Russian Spring Punch are too. His weren't complicated cocktails – that wasn't his style, he was about simple, session drinks that you'd go back for again and again. He passed away earlier this year and we resolved that we'd dedicate this, our London issue, to him. His daughter Bea Bradsell, no slouch in the bartending department herself, shares her thoughts on growing up with a drinks legend and we talk to just a few of the many people who worked with or were inspired by him (p. 14). It's as if London's bars were honouring him too. At the 10th annual Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards earlier this year, the capital's bars picked up the top spot in eight categories. We caught up with the teams and asked them to show off their hardware, see the results on p. 32. Then over at the Connaught Bar, awarded World's Best Bar no less, we asked Ago Perrone and his Italian team to strike a pose for us, a la Dolce Vita (p.38). The rest of the issue is unapologetically London focused too – well, it is published to coincide with London Cocktail Week. Read about the people, places and history of this fascinating city and while you do so, please raise a glass to Dick Bradsell.
Happy imbibing! Ms S & Mr G
thecocktaillovers.com
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Our family of fine spirits.
www.bbr.com
IN-gredients
6. IN-the know
50. IN-focus
25 reasons to be a cocktail lover this season Rubbing it in, channelling our inner punk and cutting a dash – just a few of the things we're looking forward to in the next few months
Putting drinks on the map A love letter to the capital from the bar team at the American Bar at The Savoy
10. IN-terview In the hotseat – Hannah Sharman-Cox Get ready to Drink up London! The founder of London Cocktail Week tells us how
14. IN-spire Honouring Dick Bradsell Earlier this year the world lost one of its brightest mixing stars. We celebrate Dick Bradsell's legacy
24. IN-spire A sip in time Drinks historians Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown explore London's fascinating history in drinks
28. IN-the spotlight City slickers Is London the cocktail capital of the world? Ben Norum certainly thinks so. He puts forward a convincing case…
32. IN-the spotlight London pride London's bars shone at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards this year. The winning bars show off their hardware
38. IN-style La Dolce Vita The award-winning Connaught Bar oozes Italian style as Ago Perrone and his team prove in this season's party styles
48. IN-dulge Juniper rising From Manchester to Brighton, Cambridge to Edinburgh – all pockets of Britain are now immortalised in gin. Here are a few of the best
52. IN-focus We love London cocktails Extolling the virtues of cocktail culture in the city
54. IN-focus Capital gains Vodka, vermouth, gin, beer and even whisky, all sourced within the M25
56. IN-dependent spirits Totally tea Henrietta Lovell is the go-to lady when anyone in the cocktail industry wants to talk tea. Rebecca Milford gets some tips
58. IN-dustry greats An audience with the ambassador Bartender, brand ambassador and educator, Angus Winchester gets ready to add bar owner to his CV
62. IN-formed Mains and Martinis Three restaurants where the cocktails are as good as the food
64. IN-formed Word up News, views, reviews and how-tos
68. IN-sider's guide Exploring Dublin With local boy Tom O'Brien from The Bartender Project
70. IN-ternational Bay watch Checking out the thriving bar scene in San Francisco
74. IN-vite only Snap-shot! Doron Gild's winning shots from the Chivas Photo Booth at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards
The Cocktail Lovers are proud winners of Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication, Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards 2016 and The London Evening Standard Progress 1000 – London’s Most Influential People 2015
Editors: Sandrae Lawrence Gary Sharpen Sub-editor: Sally Briggs Creative Director: James Cheverton at Burnt Studio burntstudio.com Illustrations: Edd Leigh Aidan Shahbazkhani Photography: Tony Briscoe Beth Crockatt Johnnie Pakington Lawrence Watson Contributors: Jared Brown Micah Jodhan Tom O'Brien Paul Mathew Rebecca Milford Anistatia Miller Ben Norum Lauryn Tomlinson Yael Weisberg With special thanks to Bea Bradsell and Eline Bosman For all editorial and advertising enquiries, please contact: mail@thecocktaillovers.com 020 7242 2546 thecocktaillovers.com Printed by Stones The Printers Limited. Reproduction in whole or part of any contents of The Cocktail Lovers magazine without prior permission from the editors is strictly prohibited. Cover: Illustration by Edd Leigh The Cocktail Lovers Issue No. 21 Autumn 2016 The Cocktail Lovers magazine is published by The Cocktail Lovers Ltd. in London, UK
PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY
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REASONS TO BE A COCKTAIL LOVER THIS SEASON Mixing beer and paint, seeing red and cutting a dash, just a few of the many things we're looking forward to in the next few months…
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Checking out the head turners We’re talking about Michael Dean, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten and Josephine Pryde, the four brilliant, very creative minds shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize, which celebrates the best in British contemporary art. What best to sip? A little something from Rich Woods at Duck & Waffle (duckandwaffle.com) should do the trick – perfectly conceived and always pushing boundaries.
portrait of anthea hamilton, photo by lewis ronald/turner prize 2016
Turner Prize 2016 is at Tate Britain until 2 January 2017. tate.org.uk
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Mixing paint & beer
Sounds like a disaster but Lauren Smyth’s idea for fusing her father’s two passions is anything but. She’s currently patenting the design for her paint brew cans. Keep everything crossed! smytwitdesign.com
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…and one more on the packaging front: can we talk about this soon-to-bereleased range from Le Tribute? If the mezcal, gin and tonic water taste even half as good as they look, boy are we in for a treat. letribute.com
IN-the know
03 …for a great-looking beer that is available, there’s Chelsea Blonde from The London Beer Factory, the first UK brewery to release its entire range in 360º topless cans. V. cool. thelondonbeerfactory.com
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Getting vinotyped Like Tinder for wine, this short, simple vinotyping test from Humble Grape guides you to your perfect match. Try it and see. humblegrape.co.uk/vinotyping
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Making a splash
Go make waves in Beau Han Xu’s Diamond Couture jewellery collection – turning plain old water into H2-oh my! beauhanxu.com
six Seeing red
Sip it at room temperature, swirl it over ice or use it to add ‘oomph’ to your cocktails, either way Pontica Red Vermouth is the business. ponticadrinks.com
09 Rubbing it in
EIGHT
…budget not up to couture jewellery? Get straight to the point with these fab necklaces from gastronomista. bigcartel.com
Cultivating some fuzz on your chin? Keep it in check with Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Beard Oils. Choose from Barbarossa’s Beard Oil, based on Spanish bitters, or Morrissey’s Beard Oil, based on Dead Rabbit Orinoco Bitters, both made with 100% pure oils and beard-tingly, zingy botanicals. doctoradams.co.uk The Cocktail Lovers - 7
IN-the know
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Saving face
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Blending our fragrance
…just like making cocktails, only layering with alcoholfree, solid scents instead. Boom! amygdalabeauty.com
…
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Sucking up
White Lyan
…and ditching the ice. Kaelo’s iceless bottle cooler comes in just shy of £2,000 but there’s not a drip or ruined label in sight. N-ice! kaelo.co.uk
FOURTEEN BLOWING HOT AND COLD
Winter warming peated whisky, cinnamon and honey swirled into ice cream, what’s not to like? Hot Toddy Ice Cream from Jude's & Laphroaig, available from ocado.com
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Give your skin a boost with a Timebomb Complexion Cocktail containing either a shot of B12, H20mega or chlorophyll. Just the ticket for party season… timebombco.com
Even Scrooge would have enjoyed these… Gin & Elderflower Humbugs, hollyslollies.co.uk
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Having our cake
…and scoffing it. Tipple Tails cakes are laced with a range of fruity liqueurs ensuring they live up to their name. reallygreatfruitcake.co.uk
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Channelling our inner punk
For anyone who still thinks whisky is for old duffers, check out Project XX and IPA Experiment, the first two expressions in the Glenfiddich Experimental Series. Ballsy and brilliant in equal parts. glenfiddich.com
17 Tuning in to cocktails Cocktails, choons and chat, what more could you want from a podcast? Sign up for the monthly sessions at alcohaulofrecords.com
IN-the know
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Dahl-ying around
What’s this: Roald Dahl’s The Twits reimagined in food and cocktail form? Prepare for an assault on the senses at Dinner With The Twits curated by Bompas & Parr. twitsdinner.com
18. HAMMING
IT UP
Hurrah! The novelty Gin Pig is back. Get yours at newcraftsmen.co.uk
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Elevating the brew
Blended and bottled to add a new dimension to whisky and cognac, the luxury brews from Benjamin & Blum take tea to a whole new level. benjaminandblum.com
FEELING THE MEAD
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Honey, fancy something a little different in your spritz? Try a few drops of Crowded Hive Mead when it launches in December – we beelieve it’s going to be the next big thing. crowdedhive.com
Cutting a dash
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…as does the new offering at Dandelyan. Like afternoon tea but sooo much better, this one is made up of four courses each paired with exclusive botanical cocktails. dandelyanbar.com
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Savile Row, home of fine tailoring, now has its own bespoke Martini, courtesy of Simone Caporale. Try it out for size at Sartoria every Wednesday until 14 December. sartoria-restaurant.co.uk
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Celebrating big birthdays
150 years old and it hasn’t lost any of its taste or looks, Jack Daniel’s marks its anniversary with a limited edition 1 litre bottle. It would be rude not to… harveynichols.com
24 Keeping it classic Forget the mad and modern, Old Fashioned Week runs from 14-22 October. Get your fix at old-fashioned-week.com
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IN-terview
IN THE HOTSEAT
10 - The Cocktail Lovers
HANNAH SHARMANCOX
IN-terview
HEAD HONCHO AT DRINK UP LONDON How and when did you get into the drinks industry? I was a dancer working on the show River Dance in the US and while I was there I read about this place called Milk & Honey. The thing that struck me was its House Rules, I particularly liked the one that said, ‘Gentlemen will not introduce themselves to ladies. Ladies, feel free to start a conversation or ask the bartender to introduce you. If a man you don’t know speaks to you, please lift your chin slightly and ignore him’, I remember thinking that was the sort of place I should drink in. When I got back to the UK I found out that it was opening a second outpost in London. Long story short, I got a job answering the phone. It wasn’t my dream to work in hospitality but I really loved it – I still see all the people I worked with then. I was there from 2002 – pretty much when it opened, and I worked for Jonathan Downey for five years until 2007. There was a real alumni of people from that time – we were winning everything. It was all down to Jonathan who is a genius, he was really generous with his teaching and training. You’ve said that back then it was all fun, but when did it become a career? I still don’t think of it as a career. For me being in this industry is fun, working with a wonderful team like Emma Murphy, Siobhan Payne and Jane Ryan doing something that we love. I honestly believe that there isn’t a city in the world that you could drop me in and there wouldn’t be someone who could help me out. That’s one of the great things about Facebook and this community, everybody’s sharing and everybody’s seeing what’s going on. But you have made a business out of it. Yes, London Cocktail Week is a big responsibility. We have 250 bars who offer special £5 cocktails as part of the bar tours for the week and 150 sponsors – that’s 400 clients. Each of them has an agency, or two agencies, they each have their staff and they’re all relying on us. So yes, it’s a business. But it’s still fun! Everyone knows London Cocktail Week but not so much about your other initiative, Drink Up London. When did it launch and why? It launched quietly a year ago with 2,500 live pages. The idea was to give the three festivals we run – London Cocktail Week (3-9 October 2016), London Wine Week
and London Beer Week (2017 dates TBC)– a consistent voice throughout the year. I think the brand name is way more indicative of what we do. How so? We asked ourselves what was missing, what we have that no one else has and how we could make it relevant. There are a couple of things we do that are unique. For London Cocktail Week, I can’t comment on our beer and wine weeks because they’re still young, but most venues on those bar tours are up in sales by the end of the week, for example, White Lyan was up 50% last year. So being on those lists is really valuable. Does the power of what you have created surprise you? It delights me! Last year, the £5 drinks in London Cocktail Week alone meant that just shy of £700,000 stayed in the trade. If our wonderful industry is boosted by £1 million a year – which with Wine Week and Beer Week, it probably will be, if not in 2016, then definitely in 2017 – that's incredibly cool but we still ask ourselves if there's more we can do.
We want to keep pushing boundaries. Keep relevant. How do we make it easier to be a great drinker in London? So what’s the plan? There’s nothing dedicated to promoting the events that the drinks industry is putting on, so we’re doing it. This idea comes from all the years of brands asking me to help fill their guest lists. They're doing all these events for the trade and I’m suggesting that they run them again the next night for consumers, and we’ll fill it with our subscribers. If you’re a bar there’s only so many times you can use your own database, but if you’re one of our partner bars we can reach out to our database – people who want to go out. For example, 69 Colebrooke Row and Bar Termini give us full lists of their masterclasses and there’s a button on our website where people can sign up for them. We’ve got the people, we’ve got our bars, we like them, they like us, it works for everyone.
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