Hawksmoor opens cocktail bar in Chicago
Beef & Liberty Bar, described as “decidedly London in feel”, has launched on the second floor of Hawksmoor in Chicago’s River North.
The space was previously the restaurant’s own bar, which has hosted takeovers from teams including New York’s Sip & Guzzle and London’s Satan’s Whiskers.
The new standalone concept features additional seating for 40.
It also offers an all-new cocktail menu, although Hawksmoor’s signature Sub-Zero Martinis will remain. New serves include the Duke’s Martini, inspired by the cocktails offered at Duke’s Hotel in London, and a selection of drinks celebrating the ‘naughty aughties’ era of London bars, between 1995 and 2005.
“This menu takes its cue from the cocktail renaissance that swept through London in the late 1990s and early 2000s,” said bar director Liam Davy. “It was glamorous, but with real London swagger. Rockstars, supermodels, gangsters and geezers, side-by-side in dark Soho basements sipping new drinks, many of which have become modern classics.
“For decades before then, cocktail culture in the UK had been largely dormant. Martinis were warm, garnishes were sad, and no one expected much when they ordered a mixed drink. But a few bars, and a few very determined bartenders, changed all that.
“The cocktail list is a love letter to Soho basements, loud music, and late nights, and to a time when ordering a proper Martini in London felt like a swaggery act of defiance, and the start of something delicious and new.”
Davy and lead bartender Katie Renshaw have created the drinks programme.
The Park Lane Cosmo is a nod to the giant fruit Martinis once poured at the celeb-filled Met Bar, while the East 8 Hold Up is a replica of the serve created by Milk & Honey.
Dick Bradsell’s cult-favourite ‘Ello Treacle – a rum-spiked Old Fashioned – also features.
Other highlights include Salvatore Calabrese’s Breakfast Martini and the ‘playful, dessert-like’ Silk Stockings made with Cocoa Puff cream.
The Duke’s Martini is served at -2°F in insulated flasks, with a two-per-guest limit, while other Martini variations include Hawksmoor’s Ultimate Martini, a Pink Gibson and a Vesper Martini.
Beef & Liberty Bar will also serve Hawksmoor’s signatures – named the Sacred Six – including the Sour Cherry Negroni, Full Fat Old Fashioned, and the Shaky Pete’s Ginger Brew.
The food menu will be based around classic British bar snacks, including sausage rolls with Cabot Clothbound cheddar, Scotch eggs with smoked apple ketchup, and Welsh rarebit.
Larger dishes include Hawksmoor’s Notorious B.E.E.F. Burger and fillet steak sliders with bone marrow onions and Marmite hollandaise.
The interiors aim to mimic a ‘moody, London-style cocktail den’, with exposed brick and original timber joists alongside glossy painted panelling.
Above the bar hangs a ‘Beef & Liberty’ sign, nodding to the 18th-century Sublime Society of Beefsteaks, a London club.
Earlier this year, the team behind Daisies Chicago launched an all-day bar and restaurant in the city called The Radicle.
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