The Experimental Cocktail Club

(or, when in a Ghost Town, make the most of it)

Last week, with a London emptier than I'd ever seen it, M and I finally made it to the Experimental Cocktail Club. I'd tried to reserve a table on a couple of occasions, tried for one of the tables that were reserved for walk-ins on others, but to no avail, yet last Friday night, the streets still humming with the last of the Royal Wedding aftermath, but most of London apparently still out of the centre and enjoying their 11-day leave, we walked up to the door and were shown right in.

Let me say this, the wait was worth it.

Hannah has already blogged about it here, in excellent detail and with much better images, (p.s check out her newly added London pages - fantastic) so I won't go on too much, but the cut-glass glasses, the beautiful sounding ingredients, the dim lighting, flickering candlelight, velvet seating, mirrored ceiling, view of brightly coloured strings of Chinatown flags fluttering in the night breeze through the windows, were all perfect, and the cocktails, M and I firmly agreed, some of the best we'd ever tasted (and we have tasted a fair few). I can't remember the exact concoctions that we drank, but one of mine had papery blue cornflower petals floating on top and another, gin based, was infused with Bompas and Parr cucumber and quinine jam, and both went down like a dream.

Our little jaunt also had the added bonus of helping to beat the post NYC blues, I had fallen in love with one of the cocktail bars we visited in particular, and was mourning the fact that I wouldn't be back anytime in the near future, the realisation that we have the wonderful ECC (almost) on our doorstep, has done wonders for my spirit.