Cato

London, United Kingdom

Cato is a Covent Garden cocktail bar on Mercer Street from the hospitality group Bart & Taylor, opened with bartender Angelos Bafas, formerly of Nipperkin. It takes its name from Cato Alexander, the freedman remembered as America's first celebrated bartender, and it is really two bars. On the ground floor, The House of Julep brings back the Mint Julep, made with mint and herbs grown in the bar's own in-house system, alongside twists on familiar classics. Downstairs is a quieter, more intimate room in deep red velvet, where the current Origins menu is built around New York's neighborhoods: each drink pairs an ingredient from one of the city's communities with spirits and produce from closer to home.