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Step into The Standard’s bright red bubble lift – complete with creepy robotic voice welcoming you into the building – and you’ll know you’re not in for a normal night. The King's Cross hotel, which is notoriously reliable for celeb-spotting, private parties and being extremely booked up, is now home to a bar called Sweeties. It’s tasteful, boujee, and most importantly: vibey.
Sweeties’s theme is ‘new wave glamour meets glorious misbehaviour’ – and while we’re not entirely sure what that means, there’s certainly something to be said about the sheer naughtiness this place radiates. Another drink, even though you said you’d only stay for one? Go on. A cheeky smile at the guy across the room? Don’t mind if I do. This bar is basically a grown-up, more chic version of Geordie Shore’s Holly Hagan: fun, fit, and flirty.
The snappy drinks menu was created by Zoe Burgess, founder of drinks consultancy Atelier
Pip, and is pretty much spot-on. The Let’s Go – made with Campari, vermouth, orange, yuzu, mandarin and pink grapefruit – is deliciously bright, with floral-like flavours, while the Kiss Me, made with gin, sour cherry cordial, and lime, is a zingy citrus-tinged mouth storm. All of the classics are available too, of course, with cocktails generally costing from £12 to £16, which feels dangerously good value for ten floors up. Queue your Saturday morning hangover.
The next day, your head will almost definitely be pounding, but the experience will just have been so nice that you’ll want do it all again.
One side of Sweeties is decked out with floor-to-ceiling glass, with views that make King's Cross somehow look glamorous. There’s a huge, fuck-off disco glitter ball hanging from the ceiling, velvet sofas to lounge on, and a noticeably great-sounding Funktion-One speaker system, blasting tunes spun by a suitably trendy rotation of DJs.
The space is pretty versatile, too: be that celebratory drinks, date night, or a light boogie into the early hours (it's open until 2.30am Thursday to Saturday). It’s the rare type of place where you can have an excellent start to the night, an excellent end to the night, or, more likely, both of the above. The next day, your head will almost definitely be pounding, but the experience will just have been so nice that you’ll want do it all again. A super sweet spot.