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Oriole to reopen in August
After closing its Smithfield site at the end of 2022, London bar Oriole will return to the city with a permanent space in Covent Garden next month.
Edmund Weil and Roisin Stimpson, founders of London-based Speakeasy Entertainment, closed their award-winning jazz club and cocktail bar Oriole on 31 December 2022. The move was due to the ongoing redevelopment of Smithfield Market and the Museum of London.
In March this year, the team behind Oriole launched a three-month research and development bar pop-up, called Prelude by Oriole. Created in partnership with Scottish spirits firm Edrington, the food and cocktail-focused pop-up was located in The Yards, Covent Garden.
The team had previously confirmed it would open a permanent space for Oriole later in the summer.
The new Oriole bar will open in The Yards at 23 Slingsby Place on 28 August. The two-storey venue will include a restaurant, Oriole’s first in-house bar lab and the Bamboo Bar on the ground floor.
Bar director Samet Ali has developed a cocktail menu inspired by Oriole’s namesake – ‘adventure-seeking’ oriole birds.
Paying homage to drinking traditions from around the world, the menu includes the Finca Filadelfia, a ‘complex, full-bodied’ take on an Espresso Martini with Eminente 7 Year Old rum, Del Maguey Vida mezcal, cascara (coffee shell) vermouth, chamomile liqueur, espresso and coconut horchata foam.
A number of Oriole’s signature cocktails from its original site will return to the menu, as well as the new sharing cocktail Rio Verde, a twist on a Tequila punch with tamarillo (tree tomato) purée, peach apéritif and watermelon.
Visitors will also be able to enjoy a new à la carte food menu, which the team experimented with at Prelude. Created by chef director Gustavo Giallionardo, the food offering will draw on Giallionardo’s Argentinian heritage to celebrate the fusion cuisines of Latin America, taking inspiration from Nikkei (Peruvian-Japanese), Argentine-Italian and regional Mexican traditions.
Dishes will pair native Latin American ingredients such as Peruvian huacatay (black mint) and Argentinian torrontés with the likes of daikon and fig leaves.
Like the original site, the bar will also offer live jazz, cabaret and world music.
The restaurant will also be home to an in-house bar lab, a dedicated space for cocktail development where the team will create clarified seasonal juices and syrups using a centrifuge. An ultrasonic homogeniser will use ultrasonic waves to extract, infuse and create barrel-aged flavour across a number of drinks.
Bamboo Bar
Visitors can indulge in aperitivo-style cocktails at the Bamboo Bar – an ode to the classic ‘Bamboo’ aperitif. Inspired by the classic cocktail, serves will showcase various expressions of Sherry and vermouth, with several drinks available on draught. Highlights of the menu include Odyssey (Don Julio Blanco Tequila, The Lost Explorer Espadín mezcal, pickled pink ginger, Lillet Rosé and timur berry soda) and Chincha Alta (Ketel One vodka, moscatel pisco, apple marigold, absinthe and Champagne).
Weil, director of Speakeasy Entertainment, said: “Rosie and I could not be more excited to bring Oriole back to life in London’s historic entertainment hub. We built the brand into a true destination in an obscure location in Smithfield Market, and now have the opportunity to bring the concept in its new form to a wider audience within The Yards, Covent Garden.
“We’re also delighted to have the driving forces behind the bar, kitchen and front-of-house success of the original venue as partners in this new business. We believe Oriole’s offering of top-tier food, drinks and entertainment in the heart will fit perfectly into this dynamic and developing neighbourhood.”
Speakeasy Entertainment is also behind award-winning London bars Swift and Nightjar.
Oriole will be open Wednesdays to Saturdays.
Earlier this month, Swift co-founders Mia Johansson and Bobby Hiddleston announced they would leave the bar group this summer.
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