Lounge Bohemia
Paul Tvaroh does not drink. He came to cocktails from cooking, which is why the Campari and soda arrives dehydrated and spun into candyfloss and the basil gimlet arrives as a gelatinous sphere sitting on a leaf.
Why go
The door is unmarked, it is around the corner from Shoreditch High Street station under a kebab shop, and you cannot get in without an appointment (The Nudge). Two staircases down there is a basement staged as 1970s Czechoslovakia, furnished from Tvaroh's own collection with pieces out of his grandmother's living room. PUNCH puts the technique in context: the bar was doing molecular cocktails long before many others in London, thanks to teetotaler Tvaroh's culinary background
(PUNCH). The craft argument here is depth rather than turnover. Five separate tasting menus run six courses each, and some of those courses are chewed: Bellini gummy bears, gin and tonic ice cubes, all made in house.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the basil gimlet as a sphere, the candyfloss Campari and soda, and a six-course menu if there are two of you and an evening to give it.
- Avoid: arriving without a booking, and arriving in office clothes. The no-suit policy is stated and it is enforced.
What locals & experts say
- Talisa Dean, The Nudge (2019):
Cocktails at Lounge Bohemia are like the food at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck. They have a couple of traditional classics, but for the most part they arrive smoking or bubbling from glass pipes, upside-down lightbulbs, test tubes, or teapots.
2 - PUNCH, on the method, which they call
manipulative mixology
:The Basil Gimlet comes in a gelatinous ball atop a basil leaf, the Campari and Soda is dehydrated and spun as candyfloss, and the Holy Smoke is served hidden inside a bible.
1 - Time Out London:
a mid-century-decorated subterranean drinking den replete with Czech ephemera. The bar serves quizzical drinks that come disguised in paint tubes, noodle bowls, and steaming tea pots.
3
Good to know
- Where: 1E Great Eastern Street EC2A 3EJ, in the basement, behind an unmarked red door.
- Booking: compulsory, by appointment. There is a phone number on the venue's site and little else on it.
- Timing: evenings, 6pm to midnight Monday to Saturday and 6pm to 11.30pm on Sunday, from PUNCH's listing. The venue publishes nothing our tools can read, so treat those as third-party.
- Dress: no suits, no office wear. That is the bar's own stated rule.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 8 September 2022, clean fives across all three components. The inspection is four years old, which is worth knowing and is not a finding.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth booking ahead for, and you have no choice, because the door is unmarked and appointments are compulsory. Paul Tvaroh is a teetotaller with a cooking background, which is the fact that explains the whole bar: the techniques are a kitchen's rather than a bartender's, so the Campari and soda arrives dehydrated and spun into candyfloss and the basil gimlet arrives as a gelatinous sphere on a leaf. PUNCH notes he was doing this in London long before it was common. The depth is real and it is stable rather than rotating: five separate six-course drink tasting menus, with some courses eaten rather than drunk, including Bellini gummy bears and gin and tonic ice cubes made in house. The room is his own Czech furniture, some of it from his grandmother's living room, two staircases below Great Eastern Street. It stays below the top rung because no competition result or programme award turned up to corroborate the craft, and because the strongest evidence that it is still trading is a page refresh rather than the bar's own word.