A sneak peek at the Looking Glass Cocktail Club’s new menu

That The Looking Glass Cocktail Club is one of the best cocktail parlours in London is beyond any doubts, but did you know that they’re launching an even more exciting new menu – and a cocktail book? I spoke to their bar manager Michele Reina to find out more – and he kindly gave me a sneak peek into their new exciting cocktail list. 

A cocktail parlour with impeccable service and incredible skill and imagination, The Looking Glass Cocktail Club is a real beacon in London’s cocktail-making tradition.  All it takes is a step into the bar – and a look at the secret room behind the mirror – to be won over by its Alice In Wonderland decor. 

Italian-born and hospitality trained bar manager Michele Reina leads a team that’s almost entirely made in Italy, a real family for the manager: “We create our drinks looking at their history to then integrate it with the art of home-made products.” 

Following these past few years’ success, The Looking Glass Cocktail Club is now about to launch a cocktail book celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s birth.  Michele says: “We put together a collection of cocktail that are the main characters in our story. It’s all written in the traditional Lewis Carroll style, but revisited in a modern, Tim Burton key.”

The collection is made of 10 chapters showing the real essence of the Looking Glass Cocktail Club, which has been strongly influenced by the team’s Italian touch. The Shoreditch cocktail bar is the first London bar to offer four Vermouth e Montenegro as shots.  

The team take the art of drinking so seriously that they dedicate every Wednesday to a “cocktail lab” to discover new recipes. From a yummy Panettone liqueur to the first sugar-free and diabetic friendly Vermouth to the Ph reactions to change a drink’s colour, you can be sure that a drink at the Looking Glass is thoroughly hand-crafted.

Which brings us to the new menu, launching in about a week’s time. Michele was so kind to have me and my friend try two of their marvellous new creations, still waiting to appear on the menu.

We tried:

• The Mastrostefano, a fresh Vermouth cocktail with gin a zesty lemon and rosemary twist that I could chance by adding a shot of saffron in a syringe
• The strong Rituality, a cocktail made with rum, panettone liqueur, Pedro Ximenez and tobacco liqueur and fired up right in front of us.

If you want to see Michele in action, check out this video.

 

Can it get even better than this? You have to try the new menu to find out. 

Pictures: The Looking Glass Cocktail Club, Carolina Are

Per la versione Italiana dell’intervista, fate un salto su Italian Kingdom.