LONDON'S BEST BARS: THE DREAM TEAM AT HIX

As you can read below, HP enjoyed the food at Mark Hix's new operation in Brewer St. I was more interested when I heard about their basement bar.

Heading up the operation is my old chum Nick Strangeway, former Tales of The Cocktail "International Bartender of The Year" and all round top Catweazle lookee-likey. The menu at Hix has been created very much in his own image with a nod towards his vast knowledge of cocktail history. Add to the team, the ebullient French cocktail maker, Charles Vexenat, himself a nominee for the same award in 2009, and I knew the bar at Hix would be a must visit for any lover of decent mixed drinks.

It's a well designed space. The bar itself was created from a former sushi counter, which they have recovered with zinc. It retains its original chilling system which is used to keep glasses and garnishes at the correct temperature ready to be used. The back bar, unsurprisingly, given who is involved is huge and stocked with some truly unusual spirits for the mixers to play around with.

Neither Charles nor Nick were there on my visit, but when I recognised Stewart Hudson, formerly of Milk & Honey's Red Room, I knew that my order would be in good hands. It certainly was and one of my test drinks of any mixer, a Plymouth Martini with a twist was produced perfectly as ordered, in a sensible 5oz measure with a suitable slick of citrus oil.

I had already placed an order for my second test, a Daiquiri when, the bar phone rang and Stewart began a long conversation with someone. It turned out to be Mr Strangeway who asked Stewart to cancel my order and replace it with a new creation he had been working on, a Martinez made with Beefeater Gin "aged" for two days with oak staves. It's an odd notion, but Nick's research shows that originally gin was transported to the US in wooden barrels rather than glass bottles, so the cocktails of the day would have varied from the ones we know now.

I don't know about the research, but the spirit tasted on its own, is very strongly flavoured with oak after only two days and unless mixed expertly would be too much for me, at least. In Stewart's hands, however it was a success and a good insight into what a fine and creative addition to the London Cocktail scene the bar at Hix is going to be.

Add to that the fact that the fourth member of the mixing crew is Wladislaw (sp?) brought in from the impressive Merchant House Hotel bar in Belfast and I can only recommend you head to Hix immediately because cocktail dream teams like this don't come along very often

LOUNGE BOHEMIA: LONDON'S BEST KEPT BAR SECRET?

Lounge Bohemia is a buried treasure.

The discreet entrance at No1 Great Eastern St, decorated with newspapers from the three years of Czech revolution, leads down two flights of stairs to one of London’s least known but most stylish bars.

Although recently voted by CLASS magazine as one of the 50 best bars in the world, it remains a secret well kept by those in the know, not wanting to let their little hidey-hole become too popular. I only found out about it after being taken there by Nick Strangeway on Thursday (sorry for letting the cat out of the bag, Nick) and, after a welcome pint at The Wenlock, headed off to try it out again with HP in tow.

Czech owner and self-trained mixologist, Paul Tvaroh opened Lounge Bohemia in November 2007 after a number of years working at The Prague Bar on Shoreditch High St. He enforces a strict “no suits, no standing policy” which ensures a bar with a laid back atmosphere rather than a delivery system for booze for those on the lash.

The room is small, but comfortable with high design furnishings from the 60’s and 70’s and the excellent cocktails are served in beautiful stemware, which Paul has collected over the years. The menus are hidden inside hardcover editions of Czech classics.

The back bar is impressive and again, Paul does things differently, eschewing the normal horizontal selection of a wide spread of different brands instead choosing one brand for each spirit (Courvoisier, Stoli etc) and offering them from entry to elite levels. The Bar offers the widest range of Czech beers in town and Paul also has his own unique range of infused vodka, including a remarkable Digestive biscuit creation, which, he told me, Simon Difford has called one of the best he’s ever tasted.

Food is limited to canapés which serve only to take the edge of the alcohol, but like everything else in the bar they are well made and thoughtfully presented making this the perfect place to bookend a meal elsewhere, particularly as the service is equally thoughtful.

In an age of identikit bars and restaurants, places like Lounge Bohemia deserve to flourish and I hope at least some people reading this give it a try. As long as you tell them you read about it here, so DH can still get a table.

NA ZDRAVI

ISLAY: SMELLS LIKE NEW SPIRIT

It is not everyday that one gets to go on a trip to Islay in the company of two of the best known characters in the spirit business.

It is also not everyday when you get the chance to spend a week working at the first distillery to open on an island for nearly 100 years.

John Glaser, the founder of boutique blenders Compass Box Whisky, was the very first person I met when I began the trip which became EAT MY GLOBE. Mind you, it was not much of a trip as his offices are in Chiswick. It may not have been a huge journey, but I certainly learned a great deal and made up my mind that a trip to visit the source of the, er sauce, was definitely going to be part of my itinerary.

My personal preference is for those peaty, soapy monsters that come from Islay with the tang of seaweed and iodine which compliments sharp, blue cheese or salty bowls of nuts so very well.

So, John suggested I call Kilchoman, a newly opened distillery which had produced its first spirit in 2005 and will not plan to release their first “Whisky” until 2011. A quick call had me enrolled on their course for December and another quick call had the same Mr Glaser himself deciding to join me.

Once Nick “Hawksmoor” Strangeway, the Godfather of London cocktail making, got wind of the trip, our numbers were soon increased by one.

What a week and, when I have time to write it up properly, you can see it on the EAT MY GLOBE blog. But, suffice to say that, because of the presence of my two well known (in this industry, at least) chums, we were able to bypass the usual tour guides and get access behind the scenes at all but one of the eight distilleries on the island.

What surprised me most is how different the final product from each distillery was. I am not quite sure why I was so surprised as, despite the volumes produced, these are still crafted products where the nose of the distiller is all important and produces the unmistakeable characteristics that make Islay whiskies, arguably the best of all.

And we got tastes of course. Lots of tastes. The archetypal peat bombs of Laphroig and Lagavulin, the fruit filled elegance of Caol Isla and roundness of a Bruichladdich 12 year old which had been finished in large Oloroso butts to give a deep amber colour and a subtle nose. People were the very definition of kindness and all sorts of special bottles suddenly appeared as we sat in comfortable “dram’ rooms to do our tastings or, as in the case of Bowmore, were shown into the dark recesses of the cask room to sample what John described as two "primo" whiskies.

Kilchoman still has a way to go as they cannot even call their spirit “ whisky” until it has spent a minimum three years in the bourbon barrels they have sourced from Buffalo Trace. But, we tried the new spirit which shows promising signs of things to come and we helped mash and still a few thousand litres too with some backbreaking shovelling on the malting floor and time spent patiently observing in the still room under the watchful eye of experienced distillers, Malcolm and Gavin

If the spirit was sublime, the food, I am afraid to say, was really pretty dire.

Much like my time spent in Ireland way back in April, so much of the wonderful produce of the island, in this case, spectacular seafood, beef and lamb, is shipped off to mainland Scotland and then to England or Europe leaving the locals to enjoy the offerings of the local Co-op supermarket.

While breakfasts in the B&B were pretty good in the “a fry up is always good” kind of way, meals out were pretty risible.

Menus that could have offered lobster and crab, pies and puddings offered up Thai Green Curries and Lasagne. Things that, in the right context, are all well and good, but which, on a rainy windswept evening in a place of such extravagant abundance, were really pretty shameful.

When we did see some evidence of local sourcing, the main ingredients had been hidden under “swirls” and “jus” so that they may as well have been from the local Co-op.

In a bit of distilling downtime, we did take the opportunity to visit Dunlossit Estate which is becoming a depository for the UK’s rare breed pigs and to head to Islay Oysters which produces, according to many, the very best in the world.

I love oysters but, like so many people and things, they don’t like me at all. I was persuaded to have one by Nick Strangeway who was busy downing a half dozen himself. It was a stupid thing to do and, although the one I sampled tasted great, the evening ended with the inevitable result of me violently bringing up the contents of my stomach followed by a visit to the tiny Islay A&E ward for medical treatment.

As we left the B&B yesterday morning to head out to catch our tiny plane back to the mainland, the owner handed me a small oyster shell as a humorous reminder of my trip. I suspect the three bottles of single malts I had in my luggage will be a much better memento of a week which, if hardly memorable for the food, proved to be one of the very best of the trip so far.

Not least, thanks to my companions Mr Glaser and Mr Strangeway.