Merchant House

Oh! Merchant house is one of my new favourite places! Belonging to the London Bar Consultants, the same group that do C.O.L.D., the décor theme is similar: dark wood panelling, green walls and leather seating. Dim lighting and nice tunes make it a nice location for an intimate date. But it has a more relaxed vibe than C.O.L.D. so it’s great for meeting up with a group friends too. And it’s huge, definitely feels more spacious than C.O.L.D.
Their cocktail concoctions are heavenly! I was there celebrating the successful end of a beast of a work project with Andrew M., Vanessa A. and Yinnie C. I had the Widow’s Kiss, which was exactly what I look for in a rum cocktail, none of this fruity, tropical nonsense but a deep, smokey taffee sweet.
But don’t just focus on the cocktails, as you would expect from the LBC, this place has an impressive range excellent gins. But that’s not all, oh be still my beating heart, they have nearly 300 rums to choose from — I’m in paradise! The staff are friendly, expert and helpful. With Andrew in tow, we grilled the barmaid on the range of rums and she let us sample a few until we each found one we liked. We agreed next time we’ll go back to try out their Flights — 4×25ml measures of their suepr premium range for £25!

This place is so cool! So having come here last year for a Unilocal Elite event I was pleased to have a reason to return when going for dinner nearby last week,
The first challenge in enjoying this bar is finding it, not only is it at the end of an alley, its then up a wynd, into a store front, then down a further set of stairs.
If however you have the fortitude to find it, you wont be disappointed/​This rum and gin bar is something of a time warp. Taking you back 50 years of so into London’s past. With Nina Simone playing and the houses own style gimlet in my hands things don’t get much better than that in life.
With over 300 gins and rums there is sp much to try. I would highly recommend a visit there sometime soon!