Drink… in a reinvented gastropub with a secret in its cellar.
Some might argue that the pub doesn’t need updating, but if it has to be done, this is the blueprint. The folk behind a small but hugely hip group of bar/ restaurants (Polpo, Spuntino and others) opened this prominent place on Shaftesbury Avenue in late 2013 and labelled it a ‘public house’, but it doesn’t look much like your average Dog & Duck. On the ground floor is a casual restaurant and a separate (almost) traditional drinking space, but the real appeal comes with the downstairs ‘dive bar’, a seductively lit and secretive spot with simple cocktails and high-backed booths for groups. Among the theatres, chains, rip-offs and endless crowds of the West End, this is a highly civilised hideaway.
Essential order: A herbaceous and vivacious southern European digestif – the Aperol Spritz goes down easy.
142 Shaftesbury Avenue, Covent Garden, WC2H 8HJ.
020 7836 3119