Artesian

Artesian opened in 2008 as the bar of The Langham, London — the grande-dame hotel on Portland Place that has been synonymous with glamour since 1865 — and takes its name from the 360-foot artesian well that once drew the purest water in the city from beneath the hotel's foundations. The room was designed by David Collins Studio as a Victorian cabinet of curiosities: a soaring pagoda-topped bar, jewelled mirrored panelling, blue-and-purple faux-crocodile tiling, chinoiserie detail and its signature deep-purple leather chairs beneath high ceilings and tall bay windows. It is one of the most decorated cocktail bars in the world, having been named The World's Best Bar for four consecutive years, from 2012 to 2015, in the World's 50 Best Bars ranking. The programme is now led by head bartender Giulia Cuccurullo, who joined in 2018 and took charge in 2021, and who was the global winner of the Patrón Perfectionist competition in 2020.

The draw is a rotating, tightly themed cocktail list rather than a fixed roster. The current menu, Ultimo, comprises 16 cocktails, each built around a single spotlighted ingredient that is preserved, transformed and layered using precise techniques to coax out unexpected dimensions of flavour, with sustainability and the reuse of underused ingredients running through the whole list. It follows a lineage of playfully cerebral menus — earlier serves have leaned on everything from chicory, pumpkin, daikon and marshmallow to rooibos tea, Oloroso sherry and porcini mushroom — so the house style is precise, ingredient-driven and designed to subvert expectations rather than to chase novelty for its own sake.

Artesian is a full-spectrum cocktail bar rather than a dedicated alcohol-free venue, but its low- and no-alcohol options are taken seriously. The standing Low ABV list runs a Seedlip and Fever-Tree tonic (Seedlip being the London-made non-alcoholic distilled spirit) and a low-alcohol Atopia and Fever-Tree tonic, alongside Lucky Saint 0.5% non-alcoholic lager, a London Essence jasmine and white peach soda, and a craft-beer shandy from Shandy Shack. Beyond that printed list the menu states plainly that "we can do several non alcoholic cocktails so please do ask one of our team members," so the team will build bespoke zero-proof serves to order, and several signature cocktails — such as the Cherry on Top, layered around a cherry-pistachio cordial — can be prepared in an alcohol-free version. There is no separately published zero-proof cocktail card, so the surest route to a genuinely good alcohol-free drink here is to tell the bartender what you like and let them mix to order.