Twice Shy.

Twice Shy

There is a laboratory in the basement making the bar's own ingredients, which is how a Scotch bonnet ends up in a cocktail with its flavor intact and its heat taken out.

Why go

Elon Soddu opened this at the end of 2023, after running Amaro Bar on Kensington High Street and, before that, working as head mixologist at the Savoy. Victor Maggiolo runs the drinks, and the list leans on ingredients you do not usually see behind a bar: golden beetroot, nougat, lemongrass. CLASS reviewed it in April 2024 at 8/10 and put the difference plainly, that the drinks are more experimental than at their sibling's (CLASS). The room is two floors on a quiet mews off Earl's Court Road: a five-metre black granite bar at street level, red walls and black-and-white photography from the 1920s and 1940s, then a lounge and the lab downstairs. Food is limited to stuffed focaccia, made fresh.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Scotch Bonnet and Blackberry. CLASS called it an ingenious capturing of the flavour of a chilli, while removing the heat.1 The Golden Beetroot and Mezcal, with Aperol and citric acid in a coupe, is the other one to ask for.
• Avoid: arriving in a football shirt or fancy dress. The bar's own door policy turns both away. The list also rotates with the seasons, so ask what is actually on before you order from a review.

What locals & experts say

• CLASS (Hamish Smith, 9 April 2024, 8/10): Twice Shy is, of course, no random debut venue, it is Elon Soddu's sequel to Amaro on Kensington High Street. Bartender Juan Orellano gets called one the most entertaining bartenders in London.1
• Top 50 Cocktail Bars (UK, 2025): No. 42, listed as an intimate bar hidden in West London, serving up simple and elegant cocktails.3
• Giorgio Bargiani (Bartenders' Bartender, Europe's 50 Best Bars 2026): a quietly cherished enclave, loved for its pared back list of supercharged classics.4
• Jeff's list: saved as the sister bar to Amaro, which has its own entry here. REAL.

Good to know

• Timing: Tuesday to Saturday, 5pm to 11.30pm. Closed Sunday and Monday.
• Booking: reservations taken, and the venue says it "always keep some tables for walk-ins," so a two-top on the night is realistic.
• Door: over 18s, card only, dogs welcome, no football shirts and no fancy dress.
• Dietary: no allergen, gluten-free, celiac or vegan statement is published, and the only food is focaccia, so ask if it matters.
• Location: 14 Hogarth Place, a pedestrian corner about two minutes from Earl's Court station.

Craft signals (cocktails: a seasonal list over a basement lab)

Two signals. The list rotates with the seasons, which the entry already warns about, so a named drink from a review may not be pourable, and CLASS rated the execution 8 out of 10 on a list built from custom ingredients made in the basement. Golden beetroot, nougat and lemongrass are ingredients a bar has to make rather than buy, and the seasonal rewrite works because the production is in-house.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Sister bar from amaro" REAL.

Verdict

should-visit — Twice Shy is worth the detour if you want technique in the glass. Elon Soddu came off the Savoy and built Amaro on classics, then built this one on a basement lab, and CLASS scored it 8/10 in 2024 while calling the drinks more experimental than its sibling's. The Scotch Bonnet and Blackberry, which CLASS called 'an ingenious capturing of the flavour of a chilli, while removing the heat', is the kind of ingredient work that is hard to find in a 40-seat neighborhood bar. It sits at No. 42 in the UK Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2025, which is honest company rather than a headline.