Four fantastic bars. One fantastic gin. A crew of appreciative bloggers. Sounds like a crawl! Throw in a few more nice people (including Johnny Neill, creator of Whitley Neill London Dry Gin) and you’ve got the makings for one helluva night.  Thanks to Sally Bishop from Relish PR and the kind folks from Whitley Neill as well as some of central London’s finest bartenders for inviting yours truly along to what turned out to be a fun evening of cocktail sampling!

Our evening of Whitley Neill cocktails commenced at One Aldwych, where catching up with old friends and making new ones was enhanced with sampling some fine cocktails. My fave from the evening? The Lost Cherry (essentially a martini with a little rose liqueur and cherry added). Nice.

Next stop was the members club upstairs at Quo Vadis, where a jaunty pianist (who played everything from Michael Jackson’s Thriller to Aud Lang Syne) had me thinking about the one song he decided not to play – the Tom Waits classicThe Piano has been Drinking, Not Me - as he so graciously hammed it up for this pic:

Consensus had it that the best drinkie-pooh at Quo Vadis was the Reciprocal, an elegantly complex drink incorporating all sorts of yumminess such as grapefruit zest and liquorice to name just a couple of ingredients. I loved lounging at Quo Vadis and would be more than happy to saunter back to this Dean Street gem anytime.

A brisk walk across Soho and we found ourselves at Kingly Court’s Bureau crashing a swanky do with Labour MP Diane Abbott potificating about the world entering the Obama era. Now, I’ll drink to that! And if I ever find myself at Bureau again, I’ll be sure to drink another Tippler’s Tree – an apricot, chocolate, maple syrup and lime juice sensation (shaken and stirred with Whitley Neill of course).

The evening wrapped up at stalwart of London’s cocktail scene, Match, where more merriment was afoot and a few more tasty cocktails were sampled before calling it a night (and a very good night at that)!

I’m not sure who’s got around to writing what yet but … here’s a list of the other gin soaked blogs that were represented last night:

Cheese and Biscuits ▪ eat like a girl ▪ Fake Plastic Noodles ▪ Food Stories
Going Underground ▪ Hollow Legs ▪ Life on the Edge ▪ Timinator

Good times!
tikichris