Located deep in the glaring white marble innards of the intimidatingly swanky Corinthia Hotel in Whitehall, Velvet certainly lives up to its name: once you’ve actually found it (you have to walk through half the hotel, a flower shop and another bar to get there) there’s more of the titular fabric draping the room than in Twin Peaks’ Black Lodge.
It’s rather less scary, though: instead of backwards-talking dwarves, there’s intimate cabaret seating and a covers singer. Plus: an extensive champagne list, posh bar snacks, and the main event – a cocktail list designed by Italian booze maestro (and longtime London fixture) Salvatore Calabrese.
If you like your cocktails high concept, this is the place for you – every drink is named after an ‘inspirational’ public figure (be warned, there are some tech bros included) and every one comes with some clever twist or other, be that in the cocktail itself, the bespoke vessel it’s served in, or both.
Order this
Okay, The Bored Child is nominally inspired by Elon Musk and costs £50. But hear me out: it’s served in a small car and actually consists of three full-sized drinks, those being increasingly filtered variants on the same sublime whisky-centric blend (the last is totally clear in colour). It is the quintessential piece of drink theatre on a menu in which every entry is deliciously heavy on the razzle dazzle.
Time Out tip
Open until 1am it is, by design, very much a late bar – things are really only just getting jumping around 10pm.