Plum + Spilt Milk

Words by Ian Cameron

Address: Great Northern Hotel, King's Cross St Pancras Station, Pancras Road, London, N1C 4TB, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)203 3388 0818
Website: view Plum + Spilt Milk’s website
Door: Open door
Style: Hotel bar
Food: Bar Snacks

Review

This bijou lounge bar is named not for a bizarre molecular cocktail but the colour scheme of the Flying Scotsman's dining car. You'll find it on the first floor of this revamped station hotel - the country's first - overlooking the new glass canopy of the station concourse. The bar up here, distinct from the relatively bling GNH on the ground floor, is more sedate and quiet, hence its also being known as the 'snug'.

The shiny metal bar seats five and there's space just for a handful of other drinkers at lower level seating, most of whom will probably go through to eat in the adjoining restaurant, but there's no requirement to eat. A ten-strong list of classics and classically inspired cocktails starts with champagne cocktails (the house serve is the Lady Violet - elderflower vodka, black raspberry liqueur and champagne) before giving way to signatures that mix fresh fruits with potent herbs, including the vodka-based Oriental Express (with apple and fresh lychee with red chilli) and the 1854 (bourbon with smoked pineapple syrup, vermouth and crushed cardamom), named for the year the station was born. All cocktails are priced at between £9-10.

Future cocktail creativity beckons, with a range of homemade bitters maturing under the bar.