The phrase third time lucky could have been written with the Experimental Cocktail Club solely in mind. Two cold, London nights I have braved the tourist laden, frenetic streets of Chinatown, avoiding flying dumplings and the site of unidentifiable hung animals, to find the aforementioned clandestine venue. Third time and found! It’s parent sits happily across the pond in Paris but it’s founders, Romée de Goriainoff, Olivier Bon and Pierre-Charles Cros, decided they wanted an equally chic secret love child in London. The birth place is a three-story venue previously used to host “alternative” clubs like the Clinic and Thirteen and came ready packaged with it’s own late night licence and tatty unmarked door.
Once in, the bar has a continental, decadent, shabby chic feel with low lighting, candles galore and a mishmash of small couches and armchairs- perfect for reclining with a cocktail in hand. The ambience is certainly distinct from the surrounding bars with a sense of nostalgia mirrored by the beverages. Nothing about this place is overly commercial, nothing overly rushed (with Parisian style service) in fact nothing overt; hence the hidden entrance and the concept that what goes on within, stays behind that very elusive (worth waiting for) door.
A Hint for Those in Hunt!
Experimental Cocktail Club, 13A Gerrard Street, Soho
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