Behind This Wall, the subterranean neighbourhood cocktail bar on Hackney’s Mare Street, is launching its new winter menu on Monday 19th December 2016. Following on from the huge success of its experimental Autumn cocktail and food menu, the highly conceptual winter offering at Behind This Wall will fuse mid-Western sensibilities with Korean cooking techniques and features healthy kombucha tea-based cocktails that will help with those hard to keep New Year’s resolutions.
Alex Harris is the co-founder, head bartender and chef at Behind This Wall and creator of the new winter concept. Taking inspiration from two very different areas of the globe, the menu takes Mid-Western American influences and adds a dash of Asian playfulness and colour. Being a winter menu, various Western and Eastern pickling techniques such as curing and kimchi are matched with wintry ingredients such as chestnut, clementine and chocolate and herbs like bay and rosemary. Warming spirits such as bourbon, red vermouth, spiced rum and absinthe are accentuated by sharp and the stimulating flavours of chilli, lemongrass, eucalyptus and bitters.
Unlike any other bar in London, the new three-part menu at Behind This Wall will feature complementary ‘edible cocktails’ that are designed to accompany the drinks. Split into Amuse Bouches, Hors D’Oeuvres and Pousse-Cafes these snacks cleverly use spirits to flavour and construct these small dishes; Genever-cured red mullet and a rum and white chocolate ‘toasted ravioli’ will provide a delicious counterpoint to the other cocktails.
For the raw bar menu, Alex has taken Mid-west staples and added a spicy Korean slant. ‘Poke Dogs’ made with steamed buns will sit alongside a mix of home-made jerky and oysters in a kimchi consommé.
Those embarking on a health kick post-Christmas can choose from a range of superfood cocktails that combine Kombucha tea with health-giving ingredients such as ginger, turmeric, sage and beetroot. Full abstainers can enjoy alcohol free tea-based cocktail offerings, while cream whipped shandies will be offered to non-drinking beer drinkers.
Examples from the cocktail menu include:
Beer-Tini
Vodka, chilli liqueur, coffee liqueur, pickle juice, tiki bitters, whipped weisse beer top
Chestnut Flip
Chestnut egg yolk, mezcal, chocolate liquor, salt, mint & bitters tonic
Salle Old Fashioned
Malted old fashioned syrup, molé bitters, hellfire bitters, 100 proof rye, hot scotch rinse, orange, bourbon cherry
Stinger
Mint infused white rum, orange amère, eucalyptus
Edible cocktails include:
Amuse Bouche
Spelt puffs & a chestnut cereal in pisco and nori powder, chestnut velouté
Pousse Café
Toasted raviolis – spiced rum, blood orange and white chocolate pasta, bay and rosemary granache, nutmeg
Alistair Morrell
Hospitality & Catering News, Wine Content Executive