In joke: Cocktail bar with stories behind the funny names

The cocktails range from classics such as mojitos and bellinis, to the downright strange. There is the Welcome to Kentucky, Have a Nice Day – a Jim Beam bourbon-based cocktail mixed with Asian ingredients such as matcha and yuzu, and served in a Chinese takeaway box as commentary on the recent purchase of Jim Beam by Japanese distillery group, Suntory. Another drink, Scout’s Honour, is a camping trip in a mug. The tequila cocktail is served in an enamel camping mug, complete with a smoky marshmallow and tin can.

‘We didn’t want to just have drinks with funny names,’ co-owner Elliot Ball tells LS:N Global. ‘It was about having drinks with substance. There is a story behind each of the drinks, but they are also fun, conversation-starters.’

Fun and experimentation are key to The Cocktail Trading Co. It calls itself a development bar where its co-owners, three bar staff, can be creative with the drinks and play down the pretentiousness often seen at other establishments. The pub-like setting encourages an informality that is hard to find in cocktail bars these days.

For more on how cocktail bars are raising the stakes with ingredients and concepts, read our Raising the Bar microtrend.