Speakeasy-style cocktail bars may be two-a-penny in London at the moment but Montgomery Place does a good job of celebrating the art of cocktail making.

The Venue
Montgomery Place keeps it simple with bold accents adding a real sense of style to the bar. The simple black exterior doesn’t say too much about what to expect within, but a couple of outdoor tables prove popular in the summer months. Inside, the bar is something of a centrepiece to the room with row upon row of colourful glass bottles twinkling behind. Dark round tables are spanned by dark leather sofa-seating but it avoids being too dull thanks to red lamps and interesting white wallpaper covered in images of musical instruments. A few old fashioned lamps keep it looking authentic, as do prints showing barmen from the old days mixing up cocktails.

The Atmosphere
There’s an easygoing ambience at Montgomery Place with people enjoying quality cocktails. This isn’t the kind of place where people come to get bladdered, and that always makes a pleasant change on a Friday night! The bar staff are particularly friendly and really know their craft. If it’s not too busy they’ll happily talk to you about mixology and make you off-menu drinks based on your own personal tastes.

The Drink
This place is all about the cocktails, although for an out-and-out cocktail bar they do a particularly nice choice of wine, including some excellent – and not cheap – bottles. However, you’d be crazy not to at least sample a cocktail at Montgomery Place. They follow the old school principles of cocktail-making, where tasting the alcohol is more important than overly-sweet syrup mixes. However, you pay the price for the privilege with no drink priced under £8.50 and most hitting almost £10 and above.

Refreshingly, their menu is entirely dominated by the classics, as they choose to avoid gimmicky innovations. Their bellini is expensive at £10.25 but they do use champagne rather than sparkling wine and it does taste excellent, balancing the sweetness of the peach with the dryness of the champers. Also good is their martini (£9.50), served ‘Montgomery style’. It is mixed with Tanqueray gin and Noilly Prat French vermouth and is perfectly balanced and very well mixed. However, they serve it in a smaller glass than you usually get for a martini, claiming it’s because they want it to remain ice-cold until the last sip. Fair enough, but when paying almost £10 for a cocktail you expect bang for your buck and other cocktail bars have come up with more innovative ways to keep it ice-cold without making your drink smaller.

The Last Word
After pubs started jumping on the cocktail bandwagon, introducing Londoners to the ‘joy’ of syrupy, cheap mixes, it’s good to see places like this still flying the flag for proper mixology.

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