A Subterranean Speakeasy In SW15

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House of Roxy, a new cocktail bar opens a short hop from the station

Your correspondent was a guest at the opening of House of Roxy (let’s call it Roxy’s – I meant to do it but I never found out the reason for the name) – it’s a new and exciting cocktail bar and Mediterranean restaurant handy for Putney station and the Fez club for afters. The fact that it’s such a short hop from the station makes it particularly attractive when you just cannot face making it home in one go.

It’s subterranean, as all great cocktail bars should be – in fact there is probably a law that says they have to be underground, a bit like in the prohibition era – with a low ceiling, loud music and restrained lighting so you can peer myopically at your friends while lip reading whatever it is they are telling you. After a couple of cocktails my friends tend not to make any sense in any case; situation normal.

Anyway, I and my sole remaining friend drank two of the best Mojitos we’ve ever drunk - full on rum, mint, lime, lychee, sugar and fizz with ice and added Manzanna (though I’m still unsure of the last one). Not so sure about the Roxy’s Martini, made from vodka and passoa. Isn’t a Martini mixed up from gin and vermouth and an olive? Perhaps they’ll do a real one next time? Test them!

Roxy has kept the chef proprietor from the Spanish restaurant Destino whose site it inherited. And the Spanish tapas that came around were fantastic, earthy, authentic, generous bites.

Do give it a try. Putney needs a cocktail place of quality and we’ll be back soon to dine and test an old fashioned Martini. Play it again as Sam would have said.

House of Roxy is at 141 Upper Richmond Road, Putney, SW15 2TX - it’s where all those estate agents are!

Peter Jackson

March 13, 2013