Wet Martinis and Dark Arts at Hawksmoor

We don’t need to tell you about Hawksmoor. We don’t need to tell you that they serve up life-changing, mind-bogglingly good steak. Steak so good, in fact, that one of the Ladies of the Lane, who describes herself as ‘practically vegetarian’ broke her life-long no-red-meat rule on the premises. No, we don’t need to tell you any of that. Although the temptation remains to re-brand immediately as Beef Lane, we want to tell you about gin.

Hawksmoor is one of the many fine establishments which participated in the Beefeater 24 & Time Out London promotion back in September. Tap your details in and get two free Beefeater 24 cocktails you say? Oh, go on then. The cocktail list at the unassuming bar tucked to the side of the equally unassuming restaurant is the equivalent of Gin Drinker’s porn, with a considerable lean toward the classics – gin, brandy and rum.

It was difficult to know where to begin, but when one finds oneself in such demanding situations, one must bravely soldier on. A quiet Thursday night cocktail soon turned into an impromptu masterclass, and we were gallantly helped every step/stagger of the way by the dashing barman Pete (vital gintistics: height - 6’4”; favourite gin - Beefeater 24, of course).

Particular favourites included the French 75 (gin, lemon, sugar, Champagne) which was dubbed ‘the perfect cocktail for getting engaged to a billionaire’ by one newly-carnivorous Lady, and a wet 24 Martini, which was borne from the challenge ‘make me the perfect Martini’, and skilfully created through the mixture of Beefeater 24 gin, orange bitters and Noilly Prat Ambre, finished with grapefruit and I’m fairly certain some form of actual magic. The roll-call of cocktails consumed also included; Aviation, Hawksmoor Fizz, Martinez, Lambeth Lemonade and then, we fear, some shots, some macaroni cheese, and, you know, some Chateaubriand. And after that we can’t remember.

Go there at once and order a Wet 24 Martini. And a medium-rare, 900g Chateaubriand on the side.