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Please note, since this review Between the Sheets has undergone a refurb and is now called Three Sheets. Time Out Food & Drink editors, October 2016.
Blink and you’ll miss it. Between the Sheets, a narrow and nondescript cocktail spot on Kingsland Road, is nowhere near as raunchy as its name suggests. It is dark and seductive, though; the kind of place where your eyes adjust to flickering candlelight. Decor is stripped back: less is more (again, the name doesn’t fit).
In contrast to all the dark and dim is the brightest bar service, with two lads working the small room with Northern pleasantries and modest patter about the menu. They should big up their drinks with more confidence. One of the team, Max Venning, used to work as operations manager at Tony Conigliaro’s Drink Factory, where cocktails are developed for some of London’s best bars (Zetter Townhouse, Bar Termini, 69 Colebrooke Row).
A seasonal menu is succinct, with seven cocktails and a slight Gallic slant that includes pastis and Breton cider creations. We tried a classic French 75, carbonated in house and pre-batched to pour at your table straight from a champagne bottle. It was a cute take on a classic, as was a foraged martini, a sweet version given extra lift from ‘leaf cordial’. I enviously ogled our neighbour’s shiso miso, an oriental old fashioned using all kinds of sciency prep to produce.
It’s like the boys behind this venture realised the name was too much too late. Within weeks of launching, they have plans to refurb and reopen under the name ‘Three Sheets’, adding daytime coffees and nighttime snacks. We can’t wait to see what’s under the covers at this already promising watering hole.