London’s New Cocktail Bars

80s Buenos Aires is the inspiration behind Abajo – meaning ‘down’ – the downstairs cocktail bar beneath Sucre on Great Marlborough Street. It’s the latest opening from Argentinian bartender Tato Giovannoni, founder of the award-winning basement bar, Florería Atlántico in Buenos Aires. Expect exposed brick walls, a sleek steel bar and highballs served to the sound of vinyl DJs and live music.

Centred around the Magritte painting hanging behind the bar, there’s an old school New York vibe to the Beaumont’s cocktail bar that’s moved location as part of the hotel’s major re-furb.

Take away the pressure of finding a table on a Friday night in Soho with a membership to Martinez, the new members club on Greek Street where it’s all about the cocktails. The house signature and its namesake is the Martinez; a mixture of gin, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur and orange bitters, an age-old classic that sets the tone for the menu that includes forgotten favourites as well as modern reinventions.

If Dishoom did cocktail bars they might feel at little like Bandra Bhai, a new Bombay-inspired bar in Fitzrovia. More is more, with kitsch decor and a fun menu where you could kick off with a Rajdoot Martini – made with samphire infused reyka vodka, tanqueray gin, cocchi americano and move on to the Spiced Jaggery Old Fashioned with woodford reserve, jaggery, chat masala and aromatic bitters.

A Korean tea house by day, Be-oom opens late from Thursday-Saturday to serve its ‘tea-tails’. These infuse the fragrant teas with a choice spirit – think cold brew persimmon tea with Petite Cigue cognac and magnolia-infused vodka with lemon and soda.