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| Gimlet Bar Event Autumn |
Are you a Razzle Dazzle kind of person or is a Tongue in Cheek more your style? Would a Quince Shrub float your boat or is a Sweet Almond Orgeat more to your taste? Are you a Zoophagus Maniac or a Quondam Lover? I confess a liking for all of these. I'm talking cocktails, but not just any cocktails.
I'd never really got the appeal of cocktails. Too many glasses of distinctly lacklustre, sugary concoctions laced with dodgy indeterminate slugs of alcohol had been thrust into my hands over the years. Then someone handed me an exquisitely made 'Gimlet' - made properly it's a short, sour cocktail made with Navy Strength gin, lime syrup and fresh lime juice - and finally I got it.
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| Gimlet Bar Event Summer |
Sometimes I keep things to myself for far longer than I should. Sometimes it's good to take your time and just enjoy something before it gets too popular rather than jumping on the 'look where I've been' bandwagon. But, it's time I told you about Gimlet Bar, the London-based portable cocktail bar for hire. Available for parties and events, this bar, for my money, is the best around. So how do I know this when I'm top of nobody's party list? Because when Gimlet Bar find an interesting venue, run by someone they want to work with, they hold their own party. It's not just about popping-up the bar. A lot of thought goes into each event with drinks invented to reflect where and when it's being held and what's happening alongside. You may be sipping on a warming Horse's Neck in an open-fired Soho townhouse in winter; downing a Silver Bullet on a foggy autumn evening as Count Dracula swoops on the silver screen; or sitting down to a game of backgammon along with your Lover's Leap on a languid summer evening in the city.
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| Gimlet Bar Service |
The fun that's had with the naming of cocktails doesn't hide the fact the ingredients and the mixing, are first rate, and the serving of them professional and full of charm. Gimlet Bar make all their own cordials. You'll find them in a few good London food shops, like General Store in Peckham, and they are selling them to some bars and restaurants, available via the Gimlet Bar website.
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| Gimlet Bar Flyer |
In September I notice Gimlet Bar are taking part in four of the 'Cocktails at The Geffrye Museum Garden Variety Bar' events running during August and September (Gimlet Bar dates 2 & 3, 16 & 17 September) when they'll be serving up cocktails based on infusions and ferments created from cuttings taken from the Geffrye's gardens.
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| In The Geffrye Museum Gardens |
Perhaps the most unusual venue so far was the recent event at Novelty Automation near Gray's Inn. This hidden eccentric collection of coin-operated machines created a real challenge - how to make a cocktail machine - and the answer put 3 cocktail mixologists in a small "Whack a Waiter" cubicle and serve imaginative cocktails including a Nocciola dispensed from an oilcan! Hard to imagine? well here's a photo to help:
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| Gimlet Bar at Novelty Automation |
The 'Gimlet' may have been my cocktail epiphany, but others stick in my memory, like Elysian Fields, Delicatessen, Knife in the Water ..... Did I tell you I didn't like cocktails?
