1. Brixton: pop-up cocktail bar at Cornercopia
Oh goodness. How exciting. If their cocktails are as good as their food, the new seasonal pop-up cocktail bar at Cornercopia in Brixton Market, opening tomorrow, 24 May, is going to be dangerous.
This pioneer in the Brixton food revolution doesn’t do bad, doesn’t even do mediocre. It is a Below the River favourite, and the fact that we ate a starter called Five Tomatoes (literally, five types of tomato) nearly a year ago, and still can’t shut up about the fragrant, fresh loveliness of it even now, should give some idea of how special the place is in case you haven’t yet tried it.
The temporary bar, which will look like “a potting shed” says Cornercopia’s Anne Fairbrother, is to be set up in what is usually the restaurant’s winter dining room, across from the shop. The cocktail menu will change seasonally as the summer months roll on and Nicholas Hortan, who will be running it, promises a rolling, experimental menu of ten different drinks at any one time. “They will use the very best of English spirits, fruit cordials, fresh seasonal fruit – sometimes vegetables – herbs and edible flowers from our garden or other local growers,” continues Fairbrother. Hortan will also play around with homemade syrups, botanical bitters and possibly, later in the season, his own interpretation of a Summer Cup (think Pimms – but Cornercopia-fied).
But what will be on the menu tomorrow? “To start with there will be a Rhubarb Sour, Nettle Gimlet, English Sangria – English white wine and elderflower – and a Brixton Village Mule, using Old Salt, the only English-made rum.” There will even be an inter-market collaboration, as Federation gets its own coffee bitters. Prices will range from £5 to £9 and ingredients and recipes will also be available to take home. Like we said, dangerous…
The Brixton Botanical pop-up cocktail bar opens tomorrow, May 24, at Cornercopia, 65 Brixton Village Market, SW9 8PS @brixcornercopia Tel: 07919 542 233
Next: It’s all Made in Camberwell
