Venue review: Be at One

NOTE: This post was written several months ago (around March 2014). I just found some posts I had written while I was in London and will be posting them over the next few weeks.

While I’m not a big clubbing person, one cocktail bar I like and have gone to a few times is Be at One. There are multiple locations of this bar two being in Covent Garden. I have gone to the one on Russell Street.  The set-up of this place is a type of cocktail bar, but a slightly club like depending on the night. I went here on a Thursday and while there was dancing and music it was only a bit loud and only like 10 people dancing. There was also no cover charge. When I went on a Saturday though, there was a five pound cover charge and the music was a lot louder and more people were dancing. The bar is pretty small and only one room, so it can get really crowded.

The bar itself is known for their cocktails and they have a huge book full of drinks to order. They are very good (the ones I’ve tasted) but are quite expensive, about 10 pounds. They have an “appy hour” which means if you show up between certain hours (usually 5-8 pm) with the app on your phone you have a hour to buy 2 drinks for 9.50. They also occasionally hand out little cards with the same deal that you can use at any time. Luckily my roommates had many of these cards because otherwise I would not have gotten a drink for that price.

There are drinks for every taste though. I like the Cuban zombie (which is one of their popular drinks) which involves rum, passion fruit juice and half of a passion fruit floating on top. My absolute favorite is a green fairy which is absinth, lemon, sugar, and mineral water. This drink tastes like black liquorice and lemonade. Unfortunately, I don’t think they make this very often (I always get comments from the bartenders when I order one!) so it’s not always consistent. The last one I got was too sour. 

Overall, be at one is a good place to go for cocktails during the week and a good place to go to dance and club with a smaller, less overwhelming, atmosphere.