Clarendon Cocktail Cellar, Review: new bar in Pimlico ★★★★★

New cocktail bar tucked away under The Artist's Residence is a hidden gem.
The Artist's Residence in Pimlico is a meeting of stylish interior design and delicious flavours. Earlier in 2015, the boutique launched a new restaurant-cum-café beneath its bespoke bedrooms, the Cambridge Street Café. With bright, vibrant design, an open kitchen and beautifully cooked and presented food, it's an understated new opening.
Now the hotel adds another layer of chic, with the opening of the Clarendon Cocktail Cellar, an art-inspired late-night cocktail bar in its basement.
Tread down the oak-lined staircase to enter the bar, which boasts exposed brickwork, neon installations, modern prints and candlelit cocktail tables. The menu features a selection of drinks inspired by iconic works of art, with accompanying coasters. Try Georges Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, a delicious blend of gin, lemon, Oleo Saccharum, tea, sparkling wine and tapioca pearls (the latter hinting at the pointilism movement, no doubt), sweet but never cloying and beautifully balanced. A bloody Mary inspired by Andy Warhol's soup cans also makes a noteworthy appearance.
We highly recommend the cocktail inspired by James MacDonald's painting Lake McArthur, Yoho Park: combining gold rum with Islay Scotch – maple and lemon: the substitution of maple syrup for sugar makes this a surprisingly drinkable and refreshing offering.
For an end-of-the-night cocktail, there's a delectable drink inspired by Edvard Munch's The Scream: served in a smaller aperitif glass it features mezcal, lime, cassis, agave and habanero tincture. Quirky but never gimmicky, these are the cocktails of cocktail lovers: and there's a great deal of mastery apparent in the short but well-curated menu: with talented bar manager Stephen permanently on hand to provide great entertainment, and tell you everything you might want to know about the tipples he's shaking up.
The bar also boasts a tasty selection of snacks: from honey and mustard cocktail sausages to a selection of sliders: we'd go for the soft-shell crab: lightly fried and accompanied by a memorable kale and lime mayo: perfect stomach lining from the upstairs kitchen. They also offer up complementary bacon popcorn to soak up the alcohol – all well-thought out and wonderfully moreish.
With cast iron bar, leather seats and backlit library shelves housing an unusual selection of spirits, cocktail bars in West London rarely get trendier than this.