Sometimes, to attain perspective, it’s best to gain some altitude. Cities can be strange places. Vast collections of people, crammed into a relatively small area. The location itself selected by long-dead rulers for reasons that bear no relevance today. The Romans founded Londinium on a hill by the River Thames around 43 AD. The elevation made its position defensible, while its proximity to the river made for efficient trade routes.
Today, almost 2000 years later, the risk of marauding Celtic tribes has reduced significantly, and London’s population has swelled to almost 10 million. Londoners find themselves zipping around in trains buried deep underground. The Tube, while incredibly efficient — it facilitated over a billion journeys last year — can stifle one’s perspective.
Getting to work is a breeze, yet zooming around in a dark tunnel is no way to experience the majesty of London. And so, irrespective of how many years you may have lived in the big smoke, ascending to the 52ndfloor of the Shard and getting a good look at it all is always a worthwhile experience.
The view is reason enough for this stratospheric excursion; the fact that once you reach the 52nd floor, the doors ping and you step out into a cocktail bar is just an added bonus.
GŎNG Bar is London’s highest hotel bar, and much like Shangri-La The Shard — the hotel it resides in — it wears its Asian influences on its sleeve. It’s also just launched a brand-new cocktail menu, Nature & Earth.
London is a true cocktail capital, and with competition comes innovation. Nature & Earth is inspired by the lifecycle of a plant. Through a series of drinks, samplers are transported on a journey from seed to glass, with each cocktail focusing on a specific hero ingredient. From sugar cane to chrysanthemum and buckwheat, these cocktails utilize ingredients you wouldn’t expect to be served at the bar of a luxury hotel, particularly one on the 52nd floor.
The menu was devised by assistant director of food & beverage Julien Casanova, bar manager Simone Ghiozzi, and assistant bar manager Davide Capirola.
Buckwheat focuses on humble beginnings. It blends Toki Japanese Whisky, Buckwheat Shochu, and Peach and Jasmine Soda. It’s garnish, a savory fried buckwheat noodle, reveals the resilience of a seed and its journey through the soil.
Flower is a tribute to nature as it reaches its peak, blending Orientalist Gunpowder Gin, chrysanthemum Honey, clarified citrus, and Champagne, while dried chrysanthemum petals top things off with some added aroma.
At the other end of the lifecycle, Sugar Cane combines Havana 3yo Rum, Agricole Rhum, pimento, and citrus with sugar cane sourced from Raya, a market stall in Borough Market that you can see from the windows at GŎNG Bar.
Spending so much time at the center of a metropolis — even one like London that possesses so many green spaces — it’s easy to lose touch with nature. And yet the simplicity of some buckwheat garnish and sugar cane from a local market trader can help bring things back to reality.
It’s impressive what clever cocktails and a view can do for your perspective.
