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Nightjar

129 City Road, EC1V 1JB Full details & map

Music

Britta Jaschinkski

Time Out says 14 Users say 4/5 Rate it

By Ben McFarland Posted: Jul 14 2011

On City Road, about 25 metres from the roundabout beneath which the Old Street tube labyrinth winds, you'll discover a door. It's positioned between a café that begins with a 'c' and a cafeteria which is, for whatever reason, spelled with a 'k'.

Behind this central door and down the stairs is Nightjar, a cocktail bar and music venue which stays open late and leads with live jazz and debonair drinking. With its inconspicuous entrance, a distant, doubting doorman and underground subterranean setting, it's a stylised stab at a Shoreditch speakeasy but, like all efforts to refabricate illicit bars from the era of Prohibition, it's more faux than phwoarr.

First and foremost, the cocktails here are excellent and original. In a genuine speakeasy, drinks were dirt cheap, laced with illegal moonshine made by ne'er-do-wells and likely to make you go blind. That, thankfully, doesn't happen here.

A gifted bunch of bartenders have compiled a well-crafted list featuring liquid legacies from cocktail's golden era and pre-Prohibition drinks incorporating homemade infusions and liqueurs and bitters. They take time to make the drinks but, once brought to your table by (maybe overly) meticulous staff and accompanied by an array of canapés, they both look and taste the business.

The BBC, made with calvados and Becherovka cordial, is served with 'absinthe smoke', while misty 'dry ice' vapours add allure to the Fog Cutter, an alcoholic orgy of rum, sherry, gin and Cognac. Even more experimental is the Aged Pina Colada. The bartenders have created the tiki classic and laid it down in Limousin oak barrels, where it's languidly matured for a few months.

Compared with its scruffy Shoreditch neighbours, it's a dapper, dusky place to drink. Seeing as it's a speakeasy, it's a bit mock-Manhattan; a trio of open-plan areas go big on brass, black leather booths and dark wood beneath the standard tin-panelled ceiling - it's all ideal for late night canoodling. The big mirrored murals are a nice touch but, on closer inspection, some of the finishes and fittings look a little flimsy.

On Friday nights, DJs play retro tunes and a raised platform provides the stage for regular live music including cabaret, swing, jazz, blues and ragtime. Live performances are planned for Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, when a small cover charge is added to the bill.

Tags: Cocktails, Late night, East, Shoreditch, Jazz, Bar

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Nightjar details

Address

Nightjar

129 City Road EC1V 1JB

Transport Old Street tube/rail

Telephone

020 7253 4101

Nightjar website

Open 6pm-1am Tue, Wed; 6pm-3am Thur, Fri, Sat; 6pm-midnight Sun

Facilities

Booking advisable ( Fri, Sat ), Disabled ( toilet ), Entertainment ( live music 9pm Wed, Thur, Sat )

Nightjar map

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Comments & ratings 4/5 (Average of 14 ratings)

By Pampakkis - Feb 18 2012

Excellent bar, although it can get a bit too much hype over the next few months.

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By Jo - Oct 17 2011

5/5

What an amazing place! I have recently developed a taste for cocktails and have made it a mission to try out as many of the speakeasies as possible. This one is without a doubt, the best! The atmosphere, the music (particularly the live music), the extensive cocktail list and the staff all create a place that is exciting EVERY time. The attention to detail should be noted, even to the little pots of popcorn on the tables. Genuinely love this place

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By Smog - Sep 11 2011

5/5

Great intimate venue. Service brilliant, hosts friendly and well informed. Music not quite to taste but congruous with the speakeasy feel. Will return!

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By mook - May 12 2011

3/5

following the trend of speakeasies which are popping up all over the city (Purl, Worship St. whistleshop, 69 Colebrook Row), following on a trend that milk and honey started 9 years ago, they just about get it right.
The cocktails are good, not great, good beer list, and a good wine list, food is over priced for the amount you get, plus its open till 3 with no cover charge. which is a massive bonus. But if you you do get there wel into the night expect to be held at the door for an inexcusable amount of time before being let in, to see that there are over 4 tables free that you could have taken when you first got to the front door, and this is why.
The bartenders are slow, if you are ordering a round of cocktals for 4 people or more, then buy a beer while you wait. This is because drinks will come out in dribs and drabs when they are ready not as a whole table order. Your beers will arrive first, then your cocktails bout 10-15 mins later and not at the same time, leaving that problem of the first person to get their drink will have finished by the time the last person gets theres.
I waited nearlly 20 mins for 2 drinks, there menu is to big, to over compicated and the bartenders take a while to make, which then leaves the servers not wanting to make eyecontact with guests as they know what you are already going to ask, so this makes them seem unattentive.
And they dont have Coke Cola, so having a classic rum and coke is off the cards.
Good bar let down by poor, slow service, just order that beer.

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By CFolkard - Mar 3 2011

5/5

I absolutely love the Nightjar. Just hoping it doesnt get too much buzz in London and find I can't get in one day! Fabulous attention to details when it comes to the cocktails. Highly recommended... not everyone at once though!