The Gibson

Named after the Gibson Girl, the embodiment of 1900s American beauty as imagined by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, this bijou lovely inhabits a converted former alehouse with a gorgeous belle époque exterior. Gibson is also the name given to a variant of the Dry Martini, served here with a home-pickled silverskin onion. After stints at Nightjar and The Connaught, the two owners have let their imaginations run loose, coming up with a retro list that is big on fashion-forward fixes fuelled by ingredients that take a walk on the wild side: kimchi bamboo shoots, smoked pesto, tobacco gum ketchup, purple cabbage cordial, fermented rye-bread ‘kvass’ and forest bee skeleton are not the stuff of your local high-street bar. Likewise, Grand Orient Express (smoke-dried lychee-infused Glenfiddich 12-year-old, barley tea, carob, galangal, lemon, custard apple and Korean bulgogi marinade) is no bog-standard whisky sour.