The best new bars in London: autumn 2018

Spend what you think it’s worth: TT Liquor’s Honesty Bar pop-up

Not fond of paying a hefty sum for a cocktail you hated every sip of? Neither are we. Thankfully, London’s first Honesty Bar pop-up will be put a stop to that. Hosted in Shoreditch’s TT Liquor on 12 September, the Honesty Bar invites Londoners to taste the new collection from single malt whisky pioneers The Glenrothes, and only pay what they think their dram is worth. ‘Wee plates’ from Mac & Wild will be served to wash down your whisky with.

Sip cocktails from the ‘best bar in the world’: The Dead Rabbit pop-up

For one night only (on 2 October), Londoners can transport themselves from the Sun Tavern in Bethnal Green to NYC’s Dead Rabbit – aka the ‘best bar in the world’. The pop-up coincides with London Cocktail Week (1-7 October), and will showcase three new cocktails – each made using the Dead Rabbit’s own Irish Whiskey – as well as the cocktail bar’s much-loved Irish Coffee. The Irish Whiskey cocktails will continue to be served every Wednesday throughout month, so those who can’t make it down on the 2nd will still have time to sample them.

Escape to a tropical paradise: Laki Kane

Self-branded as ‘London’s tropical escape’, Laki Kane is London’s newest rum bar, providing city dwellers – specifically those passing through Islington – with a rum-infused break from the cosmopolitan world at their Upper Street hub. Most cocktails are served in fun, novelty glasses and spruced up with flecks of sugar cane, flowers or green shoots. Meanwhile a line-up of Polynesian dancers and live DJs lend the bar a beach party atmosphere you won’t want to leave.

Drink in a rooftop greenhouse: Pergola Olympia

Bars under the Pergola umbrella have been transforming large London rooftops into leafy, boozy watering holes for the past few summers. Great for parties with their communal tables, Instagramable slogan walls and sugary, frozen beverages, these bars could be seen as the rooftop, spirit-infused equivalent of Bavarian beer halls. Now, the Pergola team are opening their first permanent, all-year-round site on the rooftop of West London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre. Unlike its predecessors in White City and Paddington, Pergola Olympia will be a fully-enclosed, greenhouse-style bar, kitted out with glass walls, floors and ceiling. What is being carried over from the sister bars, though, is Pergola’s signature frozen cocktail and street food offering, with Patty & Bun serving burgers, CLAW offering crab rolls and Passo firing out pizzas.

Crack open a canned cocktail: Genuine Liquorette

Below a diner in New York’s Little Italy is a liquor store with a self-service fridge, from which customers help themselves to beer and wine. This autumn, a Victorian pub in London’s Fitzrovia is being refurbished into a cocktail bar, based – in some part – on the New York liquor store. Here, however, the focus will be on ‘craft cocktails’. Customers will select their chosen concoctions – which have been pre-mixed, canned and shelved in a self-service fridge – before shaking, stirring and mixing them under the guidance of the bar’s mixologists.

Immerse your palate in a multi-sensory wine experience: Vignette Wine

Looking to brush up on your wine knowledge? Vignette Wine is hosting ‘The Colour Series: Palette to Palate’ – three multi-sensory wine experiences at East London’s Leyden Gallery, offering wine enthusiasts a chance to experiment with new flavours, develop their palate and enhance their sensory skills. Through visual, auditory and virtual reality stimuli, the evenings will create an environment where guests can immerse themselves in different wine aromas. Each evening uses colour as a sensory starting point, beginning with red on 26 September, followed by orange on 24 October 24, and finishing with white on 21 November.

COST: £55 per head, covering six fine wines and a paired cheese platter