Green Room at The Curtain, London EC2: hotel bar review
Check out our review of Green Room, a hotel bar with a cocktail list created by a Dandelyan alum, and sumptuous interiors
Looking for bars in east London? Read our review of Green Room, a hip, slick hotel bar in Shoreditch
Green Room in a nutshell: Trendy hotel bar with serious drinks pedigree, serving locally inspired cocktails.
Where is it? Shoreditch, an eight-minute walk from Liverpool Street underground station.
What’s the vibe?
While it could have benefitted from a more tucked-away location (set near the entrance of the hotel, it does have a lobby-like atmosphere), Green Room still makes a good first impression. High ceilings and large, Crittall-style windows add light and space, polished concrete floors contrast with plush, jewel-toned velvet sofas and chairs, and de rigueur neon signage and an emerald-hued tiled bar provide eye-catching focal points.
What’s the drinks menu like at Green Room?
The hotel’s director of beverage, Jenny Willing, was part of the team that launched Dandelyan and drinks on her cocktail menu are inspired by locations around east London – from the Bangladeshi flavours of Brick Lane in Rough Trade (Bacardi Ocho Años, Campari, jera pani spices, pineapple and lime) to a rose garden in Victoria Park (Mabelle – Bombay Sapphire gin, white cacao, rose and lemon tonic). They’re also peppered with local products, from ELLC rum to E5 Bakery sourdough.
Which cocktails to order?
The Stowaway Spritz saw Dewar’s 12-year-old and Monkey Shoulder whisky matched with pineapple and cress shrub, soda and an Irn Bru tincture (yes, really). Perfect for easy afternoon drinking, this was a smooth, elegant drink, lightly tangy and fruity, with warmth and depth from the whisky. Click here to learn more about whisky.
Our favourite drink of the night, however, was the Bread & Butter Sazerac. An imaginative take on the classic New Orleans drink, this was a punchy marriage of Johnny Walker Black Label whisky with orange and mandarin bitters, garnished with – best of all – unctuous cubes of sourdough that had been steeped in the whisky, basted in absinthe-infused butter and lightlyblow torched. With deeply fragrant toasted aromas, rounded bitterness, smoke and subtle citrus, this was a grown-up yet playful creation.
Is there any food? There’s a pithy roster of bar snacks – from salmon tostada to devilled eggs. We had bowls of buttery Nocellara olives, and pretty crudités with a baba ganoush dip.
Where to go nearby for dinner: Head downstairs to Red Rooster for quirky soul food, or a three-minute walk takes you to street-food hub Dinerama.
Price: From £9 for a cocktail.
Words by Hannah Guinness
Photographs by Justine Trickett
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