Lying below the cinema sign at 76 Stoke Newington Road, Ruby's basement bar focus on quality drinks in a decadent, intimate setting. In an area with party venues galore, Ruby's provides somewhere to sit down and have a good old fashioned chat. Don’t be put off by the slightly seedy red-lighted entrance, that helps provide a nice contrast to the setting once inside!
Ruby's Basement Bar
Go here for date night - the cocktails and dim basement cool at Ruby's cannot fail to impress.
Ruby's Basement Bar Picture Gallery
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All In London Review
Ruby's Basement Bar
Romeo and Juliet, Serge and Jane, Ruby and…everyone? Located on Stoke Newington Road on the way out of Dalston, Ruby’s is a blink and you miss it type of place. Bathed in a hazy red glow, its doorway sits beneath an old light sign, which reads ‘nothing to see here’. First of all, don’t believe it, head down the stairs and see everything of the considered basement bar.
In this part of town, style is substance and since that’s the case, Ruby’s scores high. Carefully chipped plaster covers the walls, rickety tables are pushed together to maximize the small space and fixtures and fittings generally collide to create a scene of chic vintage antiquity.
Music plays at the just the right level to allow conversation to remain separate from intermingling tables, although that doesn’t mean to say the odd song wouldn’t deserve some added volume – go ahead Bowie. The bar slants back as though buried into the wall behind it and multi-leveled shelves feature the hard liquor that makes for carefully curated cocktail list.
The vintage theme continues with Ruby’s drinking vessels and if the super taste of the blackberry mojito doesn’t reel you in, then the old milk bottles that it comes served in might. At £8.00 a cocktail, it is standard for the area although a lack of draught beer means bottles are the only option if cocktails aren’t your thing.
Ruby’s is the perfect companion for an intimate night away from the realities of life above ground – an antidote in fact. Just the way ‘the one’ should be, right?
Reviewed by T.A.O
Published on May 9, 2012
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A relative newcomer to the Dalston scene, Ruby’s Basement Bar is a cosy cocktail bar for conversationalists to go mad over. Serving blackberry mojitos in vintage milk bottles is the norm around this area and who would have it any other way?
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Located on Stoke Newington Road, Ruby’s is an underground cocktail bar whose entire raison d’être is romance and intimacy. At least that’s how it seems. Vintage milk bottles hold the drinks, light is provided by flickering candles and music is low and conversation is hushed. Perfect for couples.
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Between the rooftop sky bars and ancient music halls there is the wow of the subterranean cocktail bar to be found. Since opening up in 2012, Ruby’s has become a go-to choice for anyone looking for that extra something special. Not showy but classy. Not flashy but an instant classic. From the vintage milk bottles containing its signature Blackberry Mojitos to the largely untouched interior, it’s a gem lying beneath the streets of Dalston.
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It’s Dalston but not as you know it. This basement bar on the way to Stoke Newington is a dreamy den ripe for romance. Blackberry mojitos, great music and a lot to look at if you tire of each other’s faces.
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