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Luum to open at London’s former Pantechnicon
The third concept at London’s newly relaunched 19 Motcomb Street building will be Luum, a late-night lounge inspired by Mexico and the natural world.
Luum’s launch will be accompanied by two restaurants, French restaurant Amélie and Japanese eatery Sachi. All three will open at the end of October.
The bar team will led by general manager Stefano Chila, who previously worked at Chiltern Firehouse and Annabel’s private members’ club. He hopes that Luum will offer the same atmosphere and level of service as his previous venues, taking the “coziness” of Chiltern Firehouse and pairing it with a spirits selection as stellar as Annabel’s.
“We’re not a themed bar, but we have an inspiration. The inspiration goes especially into our cocktails, the spirit selection, the food and the overall vibe,” explains Chila. The bar’s colour palette will be rich but not gaudy, and the music will also be in keeping, supplied by DJs and eventually live bands. “We are working on that, but we’ll start with DJs, because the opening is already a big, big project. We want to make sure everything is done properly.”
While opening hours are still to be confirmed, Chila anticipates the bar will remain shut during the day, welcoming guests from around 6pm or 7pm until late – late-night licence pending.
The bar’s name means ‘earth’ in Mayan. “We want to give this vibe of being – it is a very overused word, but it makes sense – organic. We want an approach that is more natural – we want people to connect and dance. We are in the basement, so it has a very dim light and it’s very cozy. We want people to connect and be in touch with ourselves, in a city like London, which is too fast sometimes. We want a place you can call home, away from home.”
Luum’s cocktail menu is divided into three sections that reflect its earthy theme: ‘Above the Ground,’ ‘Below the Ground’ and ‘Precious Stones’.
‘Above the Ground’ features cocktails made with fruits that grow above ground, complemented by light, unaged spirits such as Tequila blanco, cachaça, and pisco. Flavours will lean toward the bright and zesty.
Below the Ground shifts toward aged spirits like rum, whisky and aged Tequila, delivering more earthy, rich flavours.
Precious Stones will showcase a selection of vintage spirits, with classic cocktails like the Daiquiri and Margarita being reimagined using rare, vintage bottles sourced from specialised suppliers. “We might have a Bacardí from the sixties for a Daiquiri or Tequila from the seventies for a Margarita,” Chila hypothesises, but admits the menu will change depending on what he can get his hands on.
The first two sections are also unlikely to be static, with Chila explaining that some fruits used are seasonal, while others, such as black sapote and lulo, can be difficult to source. “But it’s less of a seasonal cocktail list and more like a concept,” he adds. “We will change them as we get requests from guests and learn what they like and don’t like.
“We have a lab with state-of-the-art equipment, including a rotovap, and we use it extensively. Wherever we find a new flavour, we want to explore it. We base our cocktail list and our beverage direction on ‘kaizen’, the Japanese concept of continuous improvement. We believe that anything that works should always be looked at – it might work better.”
As well as the cocktails, Luum will offer a small plates menu of around 10-12 dishes, which are currently being finalised. “It’s not bar food, but it’s not a proper menu. It’s a curated selection of small plates that are all about flavour. They will concentrate flavour in small bites. Mexican is the perfect food for that kind of menu.”
The bar’s spirit selection will lean toward the lesser seen, with a strong focus on agave and sugarcane producers. Chila hopes to get his hands on rums from Foursquare, Long Pond, Hampden and Caroni for Luum, while upstairs Amélie will stock small producers of Armagnac, Cognac and eau-de-vie, and Sachi will offer a range of Japanese whiskies.
While Luum will be the building’s cocktail destination, the other two venues will also offer considered drinks menus, with 64 cocktails available across the whole site.
“I’m very confident because the project is way too good not to be successful,” concludes Chila.
In other London bar news, new openings include Black Lacquer and Soma, while Dram and Silverleaf debuted new menus.
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