Award-winning bartender Erik Lorincz has opened his first venture in former celebrity hotspot Momo – with drinks costing up to £475.
Lorincz, the mixologist who took The American Bar at The Savoy to number one at the World 50 Best Bar Awards in 2017, said his new bar Kwãnt is a “grown up and sophisticated” version of the one-time celebrity haunt.
Alongside a number of classic drinks, including martinis, negronis and gimlets, the menu has a number of “vintage cocktails” featuring rare ingredients, with some costing as much as £475.
Kwãnt sits in the basement area of African Mediterranean fusion restaurant, which recently re-opened after an extensive refurbishment. The bar is a joint venture by Lorincz and Momo owner Mourad Mazouz – the man behind the two-Michelin starred Sketch – who wanted to create a “totally new” establishment, moving on from the venue’s past.
Coined “the Chiltern Firehouse of the Nineties,” Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert de Niro were among the regulars at the hedonistic restaurant and basement bar when it opened on Heddon Street in 1997.
Slovakian-born Lorincz, who left The Savoy last year after eight years, said alcohol-free, vegetarian and vegan drinks would be high on the agenda to “cater for the huge demand” from Londoners. He told the Standard: “It is something we are all seeing, and we have put a lot of effort in to considering everything alcohol free, vegan and vegetarian. It is what people are demanding now.”
Kwãnt is open now, 25 Heddon St, Mayfair, W1B 4BJ, momo.london
