Sweeties bar creates cocktails for the mind, body and soul
Sweeties bar at London hotel the Standard creates cocktails designed to change your mood. Here is one of the minds behind the menu, Todd Austin
What is your ethos when it comes to opening a new bar?
Jack Sotti and I have a bar collective called Supernacular. We've both worked in speakeasy bars, Michelin restaurants and tap houses with different types of settings and clientele, and we just want to have some fun and take away the seriousness that surrounds cocktails a little bit. The most important thing is that people have a good time – being playful is something we're really going for, as well as looking after the locals.
What was the inspiration behind the drinks menu at Sweeties?
Someone let us know that the Standard was looking to turn its event space into a cocktail bar. It wanted to attract creatives from different industries and have someone on board who had experience in hospitality and with some creative flair, so Jack and I put a proposal together.
We pitched this ‘Seventies futurism' vibe – we both love disco – and for the drinks we wanted to focus on ‘mind, body and soul'. The rest of the inspiration comes from the building itself. We wanted to have really colourful drinks using natural ingredients such as yams, which have a purple colour, turmeric, forced rhubarb for a bright pink drink and blue spirulina. A lot of our drinks are also a low alcohol and also available as no alcohol.
Talk me through how the menu works
The first three ‘Body' cocktails are aperitif-style drinks that are quite fizzy and bright and will help you settle in; the mid section is the ‘Mind' section, where we use adaptogens [herbs or mushrooms thought to have health benefits]. This includes our Pick Me Up, a mix between an Espresso Martini and an Old Fashioned, where we make a mushroom tea, coffee caramel and a brown butter vodka. The last section, ‘Soul', has drinks that we describe as naughty late-night treats – a bit sweeter and quite colourful.
Which drinks are guests gravitating towards?
We have a couple of drinks that are Instagrammable, like the No Whey Jose, as people are surprised by the hot and cold combination; and the Crystal Healing, which contains blue spirulina. In terms of the most-ordered drinks it would be the Purple Reign, our stirred down whisky drink, which is like a Manhattan but with more fortified wine than whisky and bright with yam powder. The Fluffy Boi contains fermented oats, which are delicious with a really long, nutty popcorn taste.
How have you found the process of using adaptogens and how do you source your ingredients?
I used to work with Matt Whiley at Scout in London and we had our own lab, so when it comes to extracting wild ingredients and doing that research, it was something we're already interested in. We've always been produce-first and looked at what's in season and who we can work with locally in the community, too. For example, we work with Wildes Cheese in Tottenham, which gives us lots of whey from cheese byproducts, and we also work with Land Chocolate in Bethnal Green for our chocolate distillate – locality is something we always take into account.
Seasonal food and drink pairing: Müller Thurgau with strawberries
It's Müller time. The first strawberries of the year are in season and are bound to begin featuring on restaurant dessert menus in the coming weeks. This Riesling cross from Kröv in Germany is fresh and bright with a delicate spritz and a wonderfully soft texture – it makes for a very refreshing match.
Photo: Anton Rodriguez
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