Academy

The London Academy of Bartenders has been training dexterous shaker-makers since Douglas Ankrah helped kickstart London’s rapid ascendency to world cocktail capital, opening this 1970s retro-styled duplex in the 1990s. The list is as wide as the ground-floor room is narrow; head downstairs for (relative) comfort. For £7, you can choose between a kaffir lime-leaf margarita, Zucca-dupa (Zucca rhubarb aperitif, kümmel & barley syrup) or Markee (a Maker’s Mark, Chambord, raspberries, cranberry juice & lime frappé) – examples of audacious mixology that don’t flunk it by trying too hard. It’s a lesson from which show-offs elsewhere might learn. There’s also a catholic selection of hip branded hooch, half-a-dozen wines, & mocktails for the abstemious – but surely these miss the very point of the place?