NOTE: Tonica By The Distillery has sadly now closed – but you can still head to The Distillery.
Exmouth Market is home to some of the finest restaurants in London.
And, in what has hitherto felt like a dangerous disregard for the delicate ying and yang of food and drink establishments, very few bars by comparison.
Luckily, we have just the Tonica.
Or rather, The Distillery does. Because after the heady & seemingly inevitable success of opening London’s first gin hotel – which also contains a museum, their own distillery, your own distillery and 3 bars – they’ve opened a place further east.
That place is Tonica, a spin-off of their Notting Hill 1st floor bar, GinTonica. Inside you’ll find vibrant artwork punctuating white walls with cascading plant hangers surrounding multiple skylights, below which you’ll be able to clink G&Ts over delicate tapas dishes. We’ll get to those in a bit. For now, let’s dive into,
THE DRINKS
This bar is owned by a gin distillery, so it stands to reason that the menu here leans somewhat heavily towards the juniper juice. You’ll find a selection of G&T Pluses (supercharged Spanish-style with various fruits, bitters, and liqueurs), remixed classics like their 50/50 Martini (with equal parts gin & vermouth), or their Espresso Martini, made with Spanish brandy & dark sherry. There’s even a selection of dessert cocktails if you want to cap things off on a sweet note: expect a Fresa Daiquiri with rum & wild strawberry liqueur, or a simple Amaretto Sour. Then there’s,
THE FOOD
That tapas we mentioned earlier comes in the form of dishes like a Basque omelette with wild mushrooms & five-hour onions; grilled chicken with chorizo dressing & garbanzo puree; Galacian octopus with green pepper vinaigrette; house-smoked duck with orange & pickled onions, and more. And for dessert, you can’t really go wrong with pistachio cake & black cherry sorbet.
It’s exotic, it’s romantic… but most importantly, you’re finding out about it just before your next date night.
It must be fate.
NOTE: Tonica By The Distillery has sadly now closed.
Tonica | 55-57 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QL
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Carpe Diem!