The Drift

Address: Heron Tower, 110 Bishopsgate, London, EC2N 4AY, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)845 468 0103
Website: view The Drift’s website

Door: Open door/walk-ins
Style: Café bar
Established: 2011

The Drift takes occupies the ground and mezzanine floors of the City's Heron Tower Skyscraper. It's all glass and steel, but softened by soft fabrics and tactile, sometimes homely, finishes. With a capacity of more than 400, it's hardly the cosiest spot in the city but it's divided in such a way as to create cosy nooks and crannies. Comfy retro seating, tall counters and stools and more conventional dining tables break up the space - they've made the best of what is frankly an awkward footprint. There's nothing really to do with the sea, as the name might suggest, save for a few shells. It's all very casual so you can eat and drink anywhere.

A cocktail list stretching to 43 drinks, arranged somewhat confusingly on a six-sided menu, includes imaginative and creative drinks using homemade infusions, foams and accompanying amuses bouches. Funkily attired chatty staff execute the drinks well with different staff members cited as the creators of various cocktails on the list. The cocktail offing is bolstered by a wall of wine and a bar bristling with beer fonts.

If The Drift and its sister venues (The Refinery, The Parlour, The Anthologist and The Folly) are the successors to the tired All Bar Ones and Pitcher & Pianos of old, catering to an increasingly sophisticated clientele, then they are doing a fantastic job.