F. Cooke Cocktail Club

Following years of declining business, F. Cooke Eel & Pie House was facing an uncertain future. They invited me back to create a modern cocktail pop-up, over the summer 2018. I was working within high volume, ‘vertical drinking’ venue management, so a creative project was welcome news.

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F. Cooke’s Cocktail Club menu was based on a love of tiki, tropical drinks & the British seaside. 

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The mixology was highly complex / highly showboating. There were experiments with infusions, distillations & liquid nitrogen. But the drinks did taste delicious! And it was here I succeeded in opening a bottle of champagne with a sword.

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The menu included wonders such as:

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Sparkling dry-ice ‘Pina Colada’ sorbet / coconut-washed ‘Malibu + Bounty Negroni’ / ‘Stranger Tings’ blackcurrant leaf & sarsaparilla infused Wray & Nephew + grapefruit soda / cocoa nibs ‘Sherry Cobbler’ / dandelion brandy + ice cream ‘Milk Tooth Punch’. 

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PLUS, the highly potent pièce de résistance, ‘Death in the Afternoon’, a champagne cocktail with wormwood foraged from London Fields.

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Spins on tiki classics included:

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Clarified ‘Mai Tai’s’ / ‘Polynesian Pearl Diver’ with Bob’s blue gardenia mix / the house ‘Zombie’ with a perfected blend of 10-rums, in honour of FC Barcelona (& tiki-taka).

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The pinnacle of all the cocktology was the MARGATE-RITA, made with butter-washed Patrón tequila, mango, strawberry, chilli vinegar shrub & smoked sea-salt foam. 

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The soundtrack to the bar was an impressive mix of 80s yacht rock, Elvis in Hawaii + Giorgio Moroder.

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These days I prefer the art of simplicity in cocktails. But if you want to talk tiki or make a reconstructed Jungle Bird, please get in touch. Any project like this, I am all over.

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F. Cooke on Broadway Market closed at the end of 2019. After several years of dereliction, the shop has been taken on & carefully restored by the spectacle makers Cubitts. There are only a few traditional jellied eel & pie shops left in London. 

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Design: Lauren Hutchinson

Photography: gloom.town x Converse party w/ BICEP DJ set

Bob & Em, sippin’ negronis for Cocktail Lovers Magazine