
You know what they say – ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’. Or is it ‘absinthe makes the heart grow fonder’? Because just in time for a unique Valentine’s Day date, a strange new venue is opening in London – an absinthe tasting room from Devil’s Botany.
Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, and you’ll find them mixing up their spirits at a site in East London’s Leyton. With the opening of the absinthe tasting room, they’re flinging open the doors for guests to visit and sample their libations. They’re open every Saturday, from February 1 onwards, between 2-9pm. If you’ve ever been curious about absinthe, it’s the perfect place to try it out in expertly-made cocktails, or straight up, and “toast to the exciting rise of the green fairy in the UK.”
Each day from 2-3pm they’ll run a Distillery Tour and Absinthe Tasting Experience. Guests can learn all about the strange spirit, from how it’s made (or distilled, rather), to the elixir’s notorious past, and its unique connection to London.
The Absinthe Parlour
As well as the distillery and tasting room, Devil’s Botany also operates The Absinthe Parlour in Hackney. Nestled within The Last Tuesday Society, it’s one of London’s quirkiest bars, offering guests unusual drinks surrounded by wild, confusing, and downright perplexing artefacts.
That’s because The Last Tuesday Society’s bar is itself a venue within another venue. Namely, The Viktor Wynd Museum Of Curiosities. It’s this museum that you can thank, or blame, for the curiosities surrounding you when you visit. Billing itself as an “all encompassing museum”, it presents to guests “an incoherent vision of the world displayed through wonder enclosed within a tiny space.”
But what exactly does that mean? Well, it means “no attempt is made at classification and comprehensiveness”. Instead, the walls, displays, and corners of the site are filled to the brim with oddities.
You can see everything “from rare priceless marvels of the natural and scientific worlds like Dodo Bones or speculum to the intriguing beauty of McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys, from old master etchings to prison inmates & mad women’s doodles, occultists paintings and pop art prints,… two headed kittens and living coral.” You’ll definitely need a stiff drink when you visit!
You’ll find the Devil’s Botany tasting room and distillery at 16a Heybridge Way, E10 7NQ. The nearest station is Lea Bridge. Find out more here.
You’ll find The Viktor Wynd Museum Of Curiosities and The Absinthe Parlour at 11 Mare Street, E8 4RP. The nearest station is Cambridge Heath. Find out more here.