New pubs with stellar cocktail menus are quenching the thirst of more discerning drinkers. Millie Milliken asks how to combine quality cocktails with a classic pub feel.
Serving cocktails in pubs is nothing new. Punch, cups and plenty of gin have soaked British public houses for a couple of hundred years, and some pubs have been flying the quality cocktail flag for a few years now – places like London's the Wigmore and the Gate in Glasgow.
Yet a lot of pubs across the UK, while providing guests with a well-thought-out beer offering, are still lacking when it comes to spirits and cocktails. Optics and soda guns are commonplace but anyone after something more complex and exciting than a G&T hedges their bets every time they walk through the doors of a pub.
"What is unfortunate with pubs in the UK is they have that reputation," says Tyvian Vigrass, co-founder of modern pub the Racketeer in King's Cross in London. "Bar culture in the UK is at the forefront, so nowadays I want to go into a pub and I want them to know what they're doing… I think America does it really well – the bars are bog-standard but they know what they're doing and the level of service is pukka."
Our vision was to have a family table where you had your grandad, your uncle and your millennial cousin and everybody has a different idea of what a pub should be"
However, the past six months have seen a slew of ‘traditional' pubs that have launched with a dedicated cocktail menu: places like London-based Urban Pubs & Bars' the Black Horse in Fitzrovia, the revamped Jolly Gardeners in Vauxhall and JKS Restaurants' two new ventures, the Cadogan Arms in Chelsea and the George in Fitzrovia. Is this the future of pubs in the UK?
New kids
"When we started with the cocktail menu there were so many reference points within the history of pubs to start from," says Dominic Jacobs, managing director of the Cadogan Arms and the George pubs, both with James Knappett giving oversight of the kitchen. Both pubs occupy historic sites and launched with not only stellar cask and keg beer offerings and refreshingly strong wine lists – but cocktail-bar-level cocktails.
At the Cadogan, alongside bellinis, negronis and old fashioneds, you'll find a Rah Rah martini (vodka, olive oil, vermouth) served with an optional side of Exmoor caviar, as well as a dedicated boilermaker section (small frozen cocktails designed to drink with beer), from a Sazerac to a baby Guinness. Head to the George and among a selection of classics, lowballs, highballs and boilermakers again, standouts include the Gibson martini (with a side of pickled onion Monster Munch) and a Salty Dog (vodka, grapefruit sherbet, sea salt and sparkling oolong tea).
Their main goal: to make sure nobody compromised on their favourite drink. "The brief, having operated pubs myself was to be a zero-compromise venue," says Jacobs. "Our vision was to have a family table where you had your grandad, your uncle and your millennial cousin and everybody has a different idea of what a pub should be. Someone could have a cask ale, your cousin might want a non-alcoholic drink, you might have a wine drinker, a craft beer drinker… nobody misses out."
For James Stevenson, beverage director at JKS, the format of the drink was important at the get-go too, using familiar styles like spritzes and highballs to ‘trojan horse' them into the offering.
All change?
When the Jolly Gardeners pub in Vauxhall was bought and opened over lockdown by a group of hospitality industry friends, co-founder Nick Blucert realised the style of service and the drinks order that came with it were not what they had expected.
"A lot of younger people who don't have that experience of going to pubs now go to pubs and are used to table service," he says, recalling the rules of drinking enforced during Covid-19.
"These people now like to be served at the table and that demographic is where cocktails and premium spirits get sold… There's been such a turn in the tide of what people think a pub is – it is really crossing over into more of a bar."
Cocktails that Blucert says are most popular are boulevardiers, negronis and, of course, espresso martinis – "they fly through them, sometimes people order five pints, three gin and tonics and eight espresso martinis".
Perhaps the cocktail-savvy pub is the ideal step for customers looking for something more than a spirit and mixer, but in the casual surrounds of a pub. So thinks Vigrass: "It's accessible. Some cocktail bars freak people out and they worry people might sneer at them if they order the wrong thing. That's where the pub vibe comes in – everyone is equal in the pub."
Even the grande dame of cocktail pubs, the Wigmore, which opened five years ago as part of the luxury Langham London hotel, is overhauling its cocktail menu with the arrival of new head bartender Marco Fante.
"With Marco's experience and background we're going to be using the lab from the Artesian [the hotel's flagship, award-winning cocktail bar] which is going to take us to another level," explains bar manager Andre Ferreira.
The soon to be released new menu will use techniques like vacuums, rotavaps and centrifuges, and drinks will be matched to the Wigmore's food menu (overseen by Michel Roux Jr), including a drink using clarified tomatoes to pair with its famous cheese toastie.
Key to success
Balancing the style of the drinks to the style of the pubs was an important factor for Stevenson at JKS: "It was very important that across the breadth of the offering it felt like someone's living room, so we wanted to make sure the cocktails fit within the concept of what a pub is."
A large part of achieving that is down to service. "If I come into the pub and I'm waiting after a guy who wants a pornstar martini, a pint and some pork scratchings, the timings don't fit into the pub mode, so we were focused on efficiency and speed – everything should be able to come out at the same time."
To achieve this, ingredients are made off-site, delivered to the pub and pre-batched, pre-diluted and ready to serve to guests on ordering. "We designed the menu around that execution. Regardless of how good you are at bartending, if you have four people ordering margaritas and one person waiting for a cask ale, it then doesn't become an issue."
That's not to say that the team has it all figured out – Jacobs admits that the menu in the pub environment till needs to be finessed, with customers more used to ordering their usual in a pub rather than being given a menu to peruse. But with the Jolly Gardeners' team already viewing properties for a second site, it looks like the cocktail pub might just be here to stay.
Top tips from the landlords
"The key thing for me would be to think of how efficiently you can serve. Make sure you're meeting the expectations of your customer."
James Stevenson
"If you're going to open a new place, hire bartenders who have a passion for cocktails, but also know their beer and wine."
Andre Ferreira
"The new demographic is after premium spirts and local produce. People want these brands and go out and pay a little bit more if there is a story behind what they're drinking."
Nick Blucert
Rah Rah martini cocktail recipe
Recreate this cocktail from the Cadogan Arms
Ingredients
- 50ml olive oil vodka*
- 15ml Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
Method
- Stir with ice and strain in to a frozen martini glass
- Serve with a nocellara olive and a spoon of Exmoor Caviar
*To make the olive oil vodka
Ingredients Olive oil Argali Messinia, vodka. Method Thermomix Speed 4, 15 minutes, 50°C. Rest in the freezer overnight or until oil has frozen. Filter off the solids using a superbag. Distill at 42ºC.
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