![]() ![]() ![]() Wrap it up: what are we coming here for? It’s the perfect date-night spot. The service is as flawless as you’d expect, given their bluechip bartending credentials. Worth ordering something to eat, too? The food is limited to a few bar classics: rock or native oysters, Welsh Rarebit, and steak tartare-all ideal pre-theater appetite-slakers.ĭid the staff do you right? Bobby Hiddleston and his wife Mia Johansson, the brains behind this bar, worked at iconic bars like Milk & Honey in London and New York’s award-hogging Dead Rabbit before debuting their own space. Downtstairs, the emphasis is on heartier drinks, albeit with an Italian accent, featuring Campari and bitter orange Solerno. How are the drinks? The upstairs focus is on low-ABV aperitivi: try a classic sgroppino, a glass of prosecco with a dollop of lemon sorbet as a floater. The crowd that throngs here remains eclectic and mischief-seeking, especially once the pre-theater types have downed their oysters and martinis and headed out. So who’s there? Old Compton Street is one of London’s naughtiest strips, once full of gay bars and illicit drinking dens. There’s live jazz and blues every Friday and Saturday evening, too, if you run out of things to say.Ĭool. Upstairs, the bright space is an aperitif-focused, early evening bar slink into the speakeasy-like basement later in the night for whisky and inappropriate conversation. There was much anxiety over what would become of the space when it shuttered, but the bi-level Swift has been embraced by cocktail snobs and casual drinkers alike. This small storefront on the eastern end of Old Compton Street in Soho was once Lab Bar, a groundbreaking pioneer in the craft cocktail renaissance from the 1990s. NOTE: Swift Borough is open daily – you can find out more, and book a table, HERE.First impression? Pause a moment before you enter. Why it closed down, we’ll never understand. *apparently the whole area used to smell of biscuits. In an area flush with pubs and wine bars but relatively few cocktail bars, Swift Borough is a serious coup for London Bridge. Most surprising was the Green Market, a short mix of coconut cachaça, lime sherbet and condensed milk, a typical serve in Brazil but rarely seen here. Highlights include the Biscuit Town, a phenomenal blend of dark cacao, chocolate & vanilla bitters and a milk-washed whisky blend that pays homage to Bermondsey’s legendary biscuit factory* and the Golden Hinde, named after the nearby reconstruction of Drake’s pirate ship and here reconstructed as a nutty coupette of aged tequila, mead and brown butter. The basement’s Back Pocket menu, meanwhile, is an ode to the area’s past, with a little potted history of each drink’s namesake included. The proximity to Borough Market allows a trio of monthly specials to showcase the best seasonal ingredient on offer (and the team’s inventiveness). The menu at Swift Borough takes both creative inspiration and literal ingredients from the bar’s locale. Alongside these other cocktail dens, the original Swift makes a regular appearance on the World’s 50 Best Bars list – so it’s no surprise that the signature concoctions here are so invariably impressive. Swift Borough comes with serious pedigree, founded by a couple of power couples: ex-Dead Rabbit ‘tender Bobby Hiddleston and Milk & Honey’s Mia Johansson, and Oriole and Nightjar founders Rosie Stimpson and Edmund Weil. The Swift style is distinctive, and Swift Borough bears an almost uncanny resemblance to the original Soho bar: upstairs is a cool-hued, streamline art deco-styled, walk-in only spot dedicated to the noble art of daytime drinking aperitivi but slipping down the staircase at the back will take you into a moody subterranean cavern offering some heady and complex cocktails. Sibling to Swift Soho and Swift Shoreditch, it’s a two-storey cocktail temple within olive stone-spitting distance of London Bridge station, meaning that however long you find yourself ensconced in its low-lit, seductive cocoon, you’ll always make the last train home. And now it’s produced something even better: the latest outpost of Bar Swift. Borough Market: undeniably home to London’s finest fresh produce. ![]()
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