Time Out Eating & Drinking Awards 2009

WINNER: 69 Colebrooke Row

69 Colebrooke Row, Islington, N1 8AA

This bijou bar’s the creation of Tony Conigliaro, familiar to keen-eyed cocktail hounds for his work at the likes of Isola, Roka and Shochu – and Camille Hobby-Limon, who runs the much-garlanded Charles Lamb pub a couple of streets away. 69 Colebrooke Row is tiny: with just a handful of tables, supplemented by a few stools at the bar, it may be smaller than your front room, and it’s clear that David Collins was not involved in a multi-million interior design. But it’s already become the destination of the year for cocktail cognoscenti. A molecular drinks-maker who works with perfumists, scientists, sommeliers, distillers and designers, Conigliaro has his own high-tech laboratory above the bar. There, he experiments with elixirs, aromas and essences, to craft a stunning collection of cocktails, all priced at £7. The Wild Strawberry Bellini coaxes strawberry flavours from incongruous ingredients, while the Consulate – a mix of El Dorado rum and sherry– is an expertly crafted twist on a classic. The bar also has its very own Cognac, blended specially to complement the Spitfire cocktails. To eat, there are aperitivo nibbles of choice meats, cheeses and other Milanese munchies. Entertainment consists of regular ivory-tinkling, singers and, for the discerning, occasional cocktail seminars. But for all the excellence of the drinks, it’s the little touches – impeccably dressed staff, handwritten bills, tall glasses of water poured from a cocktail shaker – that elevate this lovely little enterprise from the pack. Read more