Address: 32-37 Cowper Street, London, EC2A 4AP, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)207 354 9993
Website: view Shoreditch Butchery’s website
Door: Entry charge
Style: Cocktail bar
Food: Tapas/plates & dishes
Established: 2012
Shoreditch Butchery doubles as a cocktail bar and nightclub, taking over the XOYO space, run by the same folk as Paradise on Kensal Green and Camden's Blues Kitchen.
Some £2m has been spent on the refit and the ground floor bar now includes urban sculpture, tables made from metal prison doors, corrugated iron walls, and a touch of voodoo magic. A huge sub-woofer in the middle of the room betrays this is a music-led venue, with DJs, dance parties and live acts the speciality. Choose from booth seating, shabby chic sofas, small tables with paint-pot stools, or just stand. Below stairs is a dance floor.
Despite its grungy appearance bartenders are more than capable of mixing a decent drink - even on busy nights friendly staff check your taste preferences before they start the drink. On offer are just three cocktails: a girly-something-vodka, a bitter and carbonated twist on a Negroni and a giant rum punch, all £7.50, though drinkers can go off-piste. Most other drinks choices are also arranged in threes.
The butchery joins the bandwagon of bars offering sliders (miniature burgers and hot dogs), all of which are calorific and tasty, though that's the only nod to the venue's meaty name. With a young, trendy Shoreditch crowd things can get pretty crazy, with queues out to the streets on busy nights, though after 9pm there is a cover charge.