Regular followers of Townfish will know how much we adore St Martins Lane hotel with its quirky artistic touches and boutique vibes. Having visited the venue on numerous occasion for afternoon tea at The Den and cocktails and light food at Asia de Cuba, it was somewhat surprising to discover they have a secretive speakeasy bar, Blind Spot.
It is a fantastic venue space for discreet, romantic drinks or to enjoy funky, modern beats over some innovative cocktails during the weekend. Finding the spot isn’t necessarily easy, it is situated behind the façade of a boutique tea counter and you enter by pulling a golden hand-shaped handle. Inside, there are snug, sumptuous purple couches and low-lying coffee tables.
They regularly showcase live music including Live Spots on Tuesdays when you catch smooth jazz and swing acts, whilst you can catch up tempo electronic and dance music from their changing roster of DJs on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays until the early hours.
The highlight here is, of course, their cocktails and their updated list is a compendium of the very best flavours from across the world. The menu is inspired by 25 destinations from across the globe; from NYC to Sydney, through Venice, Mumbai, Osaka and many more. It is an increasing trend in the top bars of London to name cocktails after places or characters that invoke particular emotions from their thirsty guests.
We started off by trying their Kyoto and Mexico City cocktail and their menu helpfully picks three key words to describe the cocktails, so with the former, we have rich, silky, boozy whilst the latter was smoky, spicy and boozy. Kyoto was served in a sake cup and the taste was very much tempered and harmonious, which is not what you would normally expect from a whisky cocktail. It had some luscious sounding ingredients like almond syrup, rose water, yuzu juice and plum puree. In contrast, Mexico City was fiery and hot due to the presence of Cabeza tequila and chilli-infused la Gitana Manzanilla.
Cocktails are uniformly well-presented with the Marseille cocktail presented with a macaron, whilst even a simple gin and tonic with lime comes with a separate mini-bottle of lime.
What I particularly appreciated is the high-quality bar snacks available to help guests soak up the alcohol; very few bars in London have that capacity. We tried some beautifully seared scallops with a refreshing pineapple accompaniment along with star anise, Thai dressing and fresh coriander and for vegetarians, their shiitake and smoky tofu spring rolls are a must order even if you’ve eaten dinner already.
Surprise your date next time you are planning a special night out by taking him or her to Blind Spot for a night of indulgent elegance.
baldwin@townfish.com