After an experimental outing to Scout not too long ago, I found myself in another cocktail bar in East London that was positively exuding aching cool by the very minimal and Scandi decor, pepped up with a bit of naked flesh on the walls. And weird ingredients. But not too weird... It was a menu full of things I wanted to try but in the end, as it was my first cocktail of the night I chose something on the ligher side - the Amber, which was like a fancy Aperol spritz made with orange blossom vodka, musk vodka, neroli (a new one to me - an orangey essential oil), and champagne. Our other drink was the habana - molasses rum, rooibos and soy. I was put off by the tea element but I shouldn't have as it wasn't noticeable. A really lovely, smooth, rich drink.
We swapped out bright and bare for exposed brick and dimly-lit-by-tealight - that other hipster cocktail staple - at Three Sheets. The place felt instantly welcoming but the drinks weren't as enticing. My Shiso Miso was quite devoid of flavour and my friend said his was the same!
We were meant to go to Shep's next but stumbled across For Fuk Sake instead which was apparently the teens' choice of establishment to hang out in. Possibly the fake cobweb had lured them in. This is, as you might guess, a sake bar. I chose an award-winning one which wasn't too dissimilar to my novice palate to the non-award-winning one my friend had but both reminded me that I am quite partial to sake. And this place seemed quite fun, blaring out Nirvana and we could hear a live band floating up from the basement. A good deviation from the plan.
My friend was not entirely used to all this cocktailling so we popped into The
Haggerston for a beer break (cider for me) before going to Shep's. I had looked forward to trying out their Korean food menu but we got there too late for that so it just had to be a nightcap. I had the Pear of Brown Ryes which featured egg so it was almost like having food... It was a combination of rye, pear puree and maple syrup and was possibly my favourite drink of the night, in close competition to the Habana at untitled.