El Pastor founders to open cocktail bar in Soho
The team behind London’s Mexican restaurant group El Pastor will open an agave-led bar called El Siete in Soho next year.
Sam Hart and Crispin Somerville opened the first El Pastor restaurant in London in 2016, drawing from their decade spent running Mexico City nightclub El Colmillo in the 1990s. There are now four restaurants in the capital: in London Bridge, King’s Cross, Battersea and Soho.
El Pastor is part of the Harts Group, which is owned and operated by Somerville and Hart alongside Anna Watkins. Other London venues in the portfolio include Barrafina, Parrillan, Bar Daskal, Quo Vadis, The Drop and Two Drops.
El Siete takes its name from the Spanish word for seven and will reference the pair’s Mexico City stint. The El Colmillo club was located on 52 Versalles Street, with seven being the sum of the two numbers in its address.
The new bar will open below El Pastor Soho on Brewer Street in March 2026.
Somerville said: “It’s nearly 30 years since we opened Colmillo in Mexico City, a simple idea built on great cocktails, music we loved and a true sense of welcome.
“With El Siete, we come full circle, channelling that same spirit into the heart of Soho with an agave-led bar shaped by the Mexico City that has given us so many memorable times and lasting friendships.”
Guests can expect ‘best-in-class’ Margaritas, original agave-based cocktails and ‘exceptional versions of classics’. There will be seven options for each section of the menu, as well as seven non-alcoholic serves.
In addition, the back bar will be lined with a ‘discerningly collected’ selection of sipping mezcals and Tequilas.
As a whole, the drinks programme will be inspired by Somerville and Hart’s years exploring Mexican palenques, cantinas, and neighbourhood bars.
The short food menu will feature El Pastor’s chile popcorn and mini tostadas.
Discreetly located down a staircase below El Pastor, El Siete’s space will be low-lit and ‘neon-inflected’. The 60-cover space will feature a central horseshoe bar with low-slung banquettes and couches set around clusters of glass-topped cocktail tables.
Macaulay Sinclair, an interior architecture and design studio, is behind the decor.
The company’s director Ian Roome added: “We are super excited to be working with Harts Group for the first time to develop the design concept for the new El Siete cocktail bar.
“Our aim is to bring forward the darker, more mischievous nighttime spirit of El Pastor beneath the Brewer Street restaurant, drawing directly from our recent research trip to Mexico.”
For more new watering holes, see our roundup of the world’s hottest bars that opened over the summer.
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