Experimental Cocktail Club, an icon of London’s bar scene, gets a refresh

What do you look for in a great bar? Excellent cocktails (mixed by someone with passion, skill and knowledge) of course. But also, it should feel like a secret, somewhere undiscovered by the crowd, with an atmosphere conducive to intense conversations, dancing and unexpected adventures, where a post-work drink can turn into the best night of your life.

That’s what the Experimental Cocktail Club Chinatown offers, especially since its recent refresh at the hands of Parisian interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon. Tricky to find – as all the best bars are – through a discreet doorway on Gerrard Street, up a steep staircase to the first floor overlooking the bustling crowds, swinging lanterns and restaurants on the pavement below, this place has been one of London’s most beloved drinking dens since it opened in 2010.

When the first Experimental Cocktail Club opened in Paris in 2007, it kickstarted the emerging contemporary cocktail scene in the city. Three years later, its sister bar opened in London’s Chinatown and rapidly established itself as the place to go for a perfectly-mixed martini (or something more avant garde) in suitably stylish surroundings.

Childhood friends Olivier Bon, Pierre-Charles Cros and Romée de Goriainoff founded the Experimental group, with Xavier Padovani joining later. They soon added live music venues, wine bars, beach clubs and hotels to their offering, with Dorothée Meilichzon responsible for the interiors in the latter. When it came to reimagining the interiors of Experimental Cocktail Club Chinatown fifteen years after it first opened its discreet unmarked door, Meilichzon was the natural choice.

Her Paris-based studio, CHZON, is known for creating hospitality spaces that are rich in atmosphere, feeling both cinematic and intimate. At ECC Chinatown she found inspiration in the history of the neighbourhood, taking the symbolic dragon as a motif for the scheme.

Scale-like patterns are woven into the carpets and textiles and a 1960s screen panel, while bamboo, braided wood, antiqued mirrors and a palette of purples, browns, and deep violets add to the sense of 1920s decadence. The furniture is ultra-plush, upholstered in shimmering scale-like fabrics with stainless steel accents.

Led by general manager Timothy Falzon and his team, the cocktail menu reflects ECC’s spirit of heritage and reinvention. There are classics such as the sparkling Old Cuban, featuring custom Chinatown Bitters, drinks inspired by the bar’s location and interiors such as Turmeric is the New Black (turmeric vodka, chamomile, Champagne) and Hay Jude (hay-infused cognac, beurre noisette distillate, bitters), plus a seasonal rotation (we loved the Sundowner Society – Ocho Tequila, plum, Aperol, lime, bitters). Finally, the ‘Vintage Collection’ honours ECC’s range of aged and rare spirits, offering a glimpse into cocktail history filtered through a contemporary lens.

Bar snacks include two sandwiches created by Jackson Boxer, plus charcuterie from Tufnell Park’s Authentique Épicerie and cheeses sourced from Neal’s Yard Dairy. It may not be a best kept secret anymore, but ECC Chinatown is everything a neighbourhood speakeasy ought to be. experimentalcocktailclub.com/london