Vintage cocktail trend gathers pace in London

The recent trend for cocktails made from ancient spirits is gathering pace in London with the news that boutique Shoreditch bar the Nightjar has launched a cocktail list featuring rare vintage spirits at deliberately affordable prices. The ambitious menu is made up of scarce examples of all the major spirits sourced over the past two years by co-owner Edmund Weil and bar manager Marian Beke at auction and through specialist dealers. 

Given the Nightjar’s speakeasy theme, the aim was to create a collection of cocktails made with bottles from the golden ages of alcohol history. “While other bars might crank up the price of vintage spirits to eye-watering levels, ours sell at affordable prices so a wider audience can enjoy incredibly fine alcohol,” says co-owner Rosie Stimpson. Highlights include a bottle of 1863 Hannisville Rye from Hannis Distillery in West Virginia, which predates Prohibition by 57 years.

Also on the list is a rare Monticello Rye from Baltimore dating back to the 1880s, the favourite brand of Baltimore journalist and anti-Prohibitionist H.L Mencken. Regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the first half of last century, Mencken spoke out against the temperance movement, calling Prohibition “a horror”. Other vintage spirits featured include El Chico rum from the 1930s, Dow’s Pigeon Blend Scotch whisky from the 1920s, Marnier Lapostolle Cognac (c.1910), and Fox's Cherry Brandy from the 1940s.

“We’re excited about offering our customers the chance to sample what are essentially liquid time capsules,” said Beke. Measures are available from £30, while a Manhattan made with rye from 1863 and a Martinez mixed with 1910 Old Tom gin are priced at £100. A taste of British liquid history is available through a rare bottle of Pimms No. 1 (c. 1905), from the brand’s heyday when the company was owned by Mayor of Lonodn Frederick Sawyer.

Last month, “maestro” bartender Salvatrore Calabrese broke the Guinness World Record for the most expensive cocktail at The Playboy Club with “Salvatore’s Legacy,” priced at £5,500 a glass. The cocktail was composed of 40ml of 1788 Clos de Griffier Vieux Cognac, 20ml of 1770 Kummel Liqueur, 20ml of 1860 Dubb Orange Curaçao and two dashes of Angostura Bitters from the 1900s.

The Nightjar

One night before Christmas, I was lead through an understated wooden door on City Road in Old Street and down a steep staircase into London's best kept secret bar - the Nightjar.

Named after a long-winged nocturnal bird identified by its distinctive warble, whose eyes twinkle like torches at night, the Nightjar is a charming '30s-style speakeasy serving up some of the best-mixed and most beautifully presented rare and revived cocktails in the capital.

Entering the dimly-lit subterranean space, the clock is wound back to an era of gin and jazz. The clandestine drinking den exudes early 20th century glamour, prettified with Art Deco mirrors, a pressed tin ceiling and a glinting copper gin still. Lining the far end are arched booths fashioned from coal cellars, packed with nattily dressed lounge lovers.

Soon after I arrive a hush falls upon the bar, and a man with a mop of mad curls takes a seat at a grand piano and begins tinkering. A whippet-thin lady in a sequined headdress takes to the stage and begins belting out melancholic Berlin jazz. Husky, haunting, hypnotic; she has crowd transfixed. Live music is the Nightjar's lifeblood. The informal salon models itself on an early European cabaret venue, and the live line up on Thursday and Saturday nights ranges from Rhythm and Blues and New Orleans jazz, to boogaloo, ragtime and swing, while vintage vinyl is on rotation late Friday and Saturday nights – the Last Days of Decadence meets the House of Elliot.

Belle Epoque and Prohibition era cocktails using the latest liqueurs, bitters and botanicals abound on the 36-strong menu, displayed in both a gold-bound book and a deck of cards, interspersed with Nightjar heroes: Buster Keaton, Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker and Kiki de Montparnasse. Head mixologist Marian Beke, of The Langham fame, is at the top of his game. Each of the well considered cocktails on the list – including Hemingway's recipe for Islands in the Stream (Santa Teresa Claro rum, lime, green coconut water, angostura bitters and sugar since you ask), are mini masterpieces painstakingly laboured over and exquisitely presented in crystal glassware.

An ideal debauchery den for discerning drinkers, cocktails are taken incredibly seriously at the Nightjar, and thus, take a while to appear at your table. But I assure you they're worth the wait. On my visit I begin with a Ladybird, recommended by Beke. A mix of Santa Terersa Gran Reserva rum, lime, prune, Belgian truffle liqueur, Caribbean spices and orange bitters, the outside of the glass is dotted with chocolate (representing the ladybird's spots), which I dutifully lick off.

Shuffling the deck of cards and pulling one out at random, I move on to a BBC, a dark, decadent and deadly mix of Busnel Calvados VSOP, Becherovka cordial and Absinthe smoke served swimming in a huge ice ball. I've imbibed many a cocktail in my time, and the BBC is utterly unique. Smoky, sexy and seriously hard to drink any more than a sip of at a time, it's like drinking a bonfire sweetened by the blood of nymphs. While I recline languorously in my chair, feeling the effects of the green fairy, my drinking companion enjoys a playfully-titled Wibble, made with Plymouth gin, pink grapefruit, lemon and sugar.

The Nightjar is my secret find of late 2010. The Shoreditch speakeasy oozes laid back charm – its beauty lies in not trying too hard. A word of warning: don't come to the Nightjar if you're hungry. Aside from the customary almonds and olives, the simple bar snack menu includes courgette fritters, saucissons with cornichons, and cow's curd with Sherry vinegar and beetroot relish, but nothing substantial enough to fill up anyone with an appetite bigger than a sparrow.

The Nightjar, 129-131 City Road, London EC1V 1JB, +44 (0)20 7253 4101. Cocktails from £8.50.