The capital’s finest cocktail bars

We have finally arrived in the roaring 20s and the urge to drink ­­– after the year and a half we’ve been through – is strong. Lockdown provided ample opportunity to neck wine in the monotonous comfort of one’s own home, so the mood now is firmly for tipples in luxurious, and crucially, public indoor settings. What is required, of course, are cocktails. London is packed full of ebullient options, but as a cocktail snob – they need to be good, or one might as well drink wine – I set out to find the very best. I looked for interesting, creative concoctions that weren’t so zany they ended up being horrible, served in the kind of glamorous, buzzy settings we so sorely missed during lockdown. The results of my investigation are skewed towards hotels, since London specializes in destination hotel bars, and is having a moment with the opening of new bars at Claridges and the Connaught.