Holy trinity: Cocktail bar takes religious theme

Communion Bar is on Camberwell Church Street in the basement of the Church Street Hotel, beneath a restaurant called Angels & Gypsies. The bar, the creation of brothers José and Mel Raido, is decorated with brightly coloured stained glass depicting scenes from the Bible, including Jacob’s Ladder and Moses parting the Red Sea. Each table is dressed with communion wine and embossed wafers from the same supplier used by the local Greek Orthodox Church.

José and Mel Raido also own the Church Street Hotel and the Angels & Gypsies restaurant. ‘The idea came about because we were looking to carry on the ecclesiastical feel of the business and fulfill our ‘holy trinity’: the hotel, restaurant and cocktail bar,’ José tells LS:N Global. The emphasis, he says, was ‘on the ritual of partaking in the wine and the wafer: the kneeling and ritual of paying homage to that very special beverage from the golden chalice’.

‘The reverence that is placed on the beverage is what we really liked, since we are so passionate about our cocktails, botanicals and house infusions, as well as the food symbolised by the wafer.’

Communion Bar treats its drinks seriously and consumers are welcoming this approach. For more on this trend, watch our Inform interview with Ryan Chetiyawardana.