London Cocktail Week: Everything you need to know about this festival of booze
With 150 events taking place over 11 days, this year’s London Cocktail Week is bigger than ever. Those with a nose for a well-mixed drink can attend masterclasses, tastings, dinners and parties, as well as seeing how many of the 200 venues taking part in the Curated Cocktail Tours you can visit.
Each one will be serving up an £8 Signature Cocktail to wristband wearers, although we don’t recommend sampling all 200 of them. We asked London Cocktail Week co-founders Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhan Payne, what we can expect from this year’s programme.
WHAT’S HOT IN COCKTAILS?
Hannah Sharman-Cox: It’s the era of agave spirits! It’s so fascinating to see the trends in cocktails. We have 200 of the best bars in London submitting a Signature Cocktail so we get a fantastic snapshot of what’s hot. And this year, there are a lot of tequila and mezcal cocktails.
It’s the era of agave spirits!
Part of the programme that has shown real growth is our Guest Shift schedule. Every year, a lot of bar teams from around the world fly into London for the festival in order to “takeover” a bar here for the night. Usually this is bars from outside of the country but this year we’ve noticed a huge increase in the number of bars from around the UK coming into the capital to showcase their work via guest shifts and takeovers.
We think it shows a really interesting shift of focus outside of the capital – and we think the festival will become a snapshot of the UK hospitality scene as a whole. Every year we try to evolve the festival, but this year it truly feels like we’re taking it to the next level.
WHAT EVENTS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO?
Siobhan Payne: We are incredibly excited about The Connoisseur’s Collection, a selection of very high-end experiences aimed at our most discerning guests. The Connoisseur’s Collection has given us the opportunity to work with bars who can’t facilitate the £8 Cocktail Tour price point.
It’s important that we can work with these venues to create a true celebration of London’s cocktail culture, and it’s super exciting to see such incredible experiences being created for cocktail aficionados. The Connoisseur’s Collection will include American Bar at The Savoy, Scarfe’s Bar at Rosewood London and Aubrey at The Mandarin Oriental – there are some unforgettable opportunities on the schedule.
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIG CHALLENGES?
HSC: It goes without saying that the hospitality industry has had a tough time, and the economic issues the country is facing have a huge impact on bars. However, we do feel like spirits are high. The great thing about our industry is that we’re resilient, as individuals (you have to be resilient to work in a bar!) but also as a collective.
We have faced challenges head on, and while there have been some really horrible outcomes, there have been some success stories that are worth focusing on and celebrating. We really hope the changes we’ve made to London Cocktail Week will help to bolster and uplift the bars we’re working with and we are incredibly committed to supporting the London hospitality industry in as many ways as we can for years to come.
ARE ATTITUDES TO COCKTAILS CHANGING?
SP: People are definitely more knowledgeable about cocktails than they were when in the early days of London Cocktail Week. Palates are also changing, moving towards more bitter, stronger flavour profiles, and there is certainly more interest around unique ingredients and techniques. It’s exciting to see this growth of appetite for great drinks in great bars.
HOW IS LCW HELPING LONDON’S BARS?
SP: We have made a commitment to reinvest the funds generated by the festival back into the hospitality industry.
Throughout the lifetime of the festival we have injected substantial revenue into the Night Time Economy through the sale of Signature Cocktails in participating venues. Over the last thirteen years, more than £4m have been run through the tills of our partner venues, with the bars always retaining 100 per cent of the price of the drinks.
This year, we’re stepping it up even further, with bars able to sell wristbands to consumers, retaining all revenue and amplifying their earnings.
These initiatives are poised to offer London bars unprecedented opportunities to generate higher revenue during the festival. Part of this is a decision not to run the Cocktail Villages this year, so that we can focus 100% of our attention on championing the on-trade venues taking part, and driving our guests to discover London’s incredible cocktail scene.
PICK ONE LWC COCKTAIL:
HSC: We’re particularly looking forward to visiting some of the new openings taking part, including Atelier Coupette, the brand new bar from the fantastic team at Coupette in Bethnal Green, and Paloma Cafe which will be open just in time for the festival!