Apples & Pears

Their website says that they are ‘East London’s hidden cocktail bar’ and having never heard of the place before heading here, it would have to be some of the most accurate web blurb we’ve read. Tucked away at the Aldgate end of Brick Lane, Apples and Pears is hidden behind a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ doorway.

The bar is narrow and cramped at one end with seating always at a premium. However, when the music is as good as it was on this occasion – and the quality of the music here is one of the bar’s ‘things’ - then that doesn’t become a problem. Motown, funk, soul and 90’s hip-hop tunes form one long mix tape that lasts all night long. One minute it’s KRS-ONE, the next it’s Shanks and Bigfoot. How does this work? Who knows…

Given that the music rules and therefore the dancing follows, it is almost perplexing that this is a fine cocktail bar too. A trip to the bar isn’t quick but what you get at the end of it is well worth the wait. The West Indian Summer – a mix of lime infused gin and Bergamot liqueur – is great, and an off menu Old Fashioned is even brought to the table, such is the time and care taken over muddling.

Come summer, dancers will be relieved to find the small beer garden out back – it gets hot inside! Others will just be pleased to find a little bit of space away from the bad breaking, bopping, bogling and any other dance beginning with B that seems to rule the Apples and Pears dance floor. For once, the blurb on a website is right, this place is ‘East London’s hidden cocktail bar’ and it is such a good time, let’s hope it stays that way.