Josh Barrie On The Sauce at The Nipperkin: Pretence is mercifully kept to a minimum at sustainable innovator

In testing circumstances, other bars fall to the classics. The Nipperkin needs no help with ingenuity, says Josh Barrie
Subterranean chic: the bar’s elegance belies its creative brilliance
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Emphatic talk of provenance and seasonality is, for the most part, roundly dull. Bore off mate, any good hospitality business worth its salt will use decent suppliers and doing so is nothing new. Yes, bars and restaurants should be open about their sourcing, but making it their entire personality becomes a bit obsessive.

The Nipperkin doesn’t. It is the subterranean bar to 20 Berkeley, a new restaurant where 96 per cent of the produce is sourced from Britain. Usually, a Mayfair townhouse fitted lavishly with rich wood and plush banquettes is hardly the place for talking up farming. Sustainability is a lot less hot in these parts than, say, shipped-in rounds of caviar, or truffle pie warmed on the bonnet of a burning Tesla.

The Nipperkin does the same as upstairs, showcasing all this country has to offer. And, happily, pretence is kept to a minimum. Instead, Angelos Bafas, bars manager for the Creative Restaurant Group (of which The Nipperkin is part) is helpful. Communicative. Stays clear of delaying things with unrequested self-importance.

Bafas explains what’s good right now and what isn’t. Strawberries, for example. They come from West Dorset and are used in a quite beautiful drink called Strawberry, tinged red but clear, a consommé of a situation where Scotch is tempered by fruit, a dose of meadowsweet and a pour of smoked Cornish Earl Grey. Normally, I’d cast aside such a pudding of a cocktail, but it isn’t too sweet, instead allowing the booze to play a prominent role.

I ask for the Black Mustard next. No luck — the bar is all out. Well, almost. I’m given the last drop: a careful blend of discarded grape vodka, the King’s Ginger liqueur, Dorset wasabi distillate, apple eau de vie and black mustard leaves. One of the better modern cocktails I’ve tried. One to return for.

And so after that little taste, the bar whips me up something off the cuff, a concoction of whisky and cherries called Pinot Noir. Other bars might fall on the familiar in testing circumstances; The Nipperkin team requires no time at all to conceive something stupendous.

Much the same as desserts, I tend to think few recent creations are worthwhile. The Nipperkin is proof that the new can be exciting, without being far too much.

20 Berkeley Street, W1J 8EE. Cocktails around £20; 20berkeley.com

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