Hello cheeky! A tres chic bar with a subtle French lean has just arrived in Bethnal Green to bolster one of the capital’s best areas for drinking. Cheeky, because Coupette loosely translates as a ‘cheeky one’ from French. This playful starting point tells you a lot. It’s from a former head bartender at the Beaufort Bar at the Savoy, who’s brought across the world-class tipple knowledge but none of the formality. Instead, there’s a hip hop soundtrack (a shame that none of it’s French, mind) and a very cool crowd already swarming at the bar who are seemingly all friends with a staff of industry experts. The décor is east London edgy yet sophisticated – those light fittings are quite something.
The cocktail menu is a conceptual, art-filled masterpiece, although a little bit lengthy and hard to digest. Each page of the drinks list offers an illustration of a French icon and a chunk of cocktails which fit that personality. Forget Eric Cantona and Edith Piaf, we’re talking architect Le Corbusier (who was actually Swiss) and punk icon Edwige Belmore.
Calvados (a French apple brandy) features heavily. Try it in ‘apples’, a crisp calvados and apple juice cocktail carbonated in-house – it’s essentially posh and boozy Appletiser. And don’t miss the champagne piña colada, a silky take on the tropical drink with coconut sorbet for extra phwoar factor. It may just be the best new drink in London. Expect ooh la las all round.
Despite that cool crowd, cocktails came incredibly quick to the table. And a food menu is coming soon, promising croque monsieurs, essentially the perfect bar snack. If they’re anywhere near as good as those drinks, east London waistlines could be in trouble. Very cheeky indeed.