Seed Library

Seed Library is the Shoreditch cocktail bar from Ryan Chetiyawardana, the bartender better known as Mr Lyan, who reshaped London drinking in 2013 with White Lyan — the first bar to work with no perishables, no ice and no branded spirits. His subsequent rooms, Dandelyan (named the world's best bar at the World's 50 Best Bars awards in 2018) and its South Bank successor Lyaness, have been fixtures of that list. Opened in the basement of the One Hundred Shoreditch hotel at 100 Shoreditch High Street (E1 6JQ), Seed Library is pitched as his neighbourhood bar: less theatrical than the flagship, built around what the team call "stripped-back analogue forms and a maker's touch" — minimal fuss, maximum flavour, drawn from unexpected ingredients.

The space is a low-ceilinged basement done in warm, retro tones — terrazzo tables, pine panelling and soft 1960s and '70s stylings — that Time Out called "a relaxed, impressively low-lit and supremely welcoming space". It is an over-18s room that takes walk-ins as readily as bookings, and at weekends the East London crew Diggers Dozen spin vinyl. Snacks lean on Lyan lore, including the returning White Lyan Magic Cheese first served at his original Hoxton bar.

The drinks arrive on a rotating "Pathways" list of eight serves, and — unusually for a bar of this billing — four of them are non-alcoholic, built with the same rigour as their full-strength twins rather than tacked on as an afterthought. The alcohol-free "Boozeless" pours (around £8–£9) shadow the main menu: a Boozeless Coriander Seed Gimlet of Everleaf's non-alcoholic aperitif and house coriander-seed cordial; a Boozeless Pink + Green Daiquiri using Seedlip Garden with nitro-ripened grape and lime; a Boozeless Orkney Breezer that swaps whisky for Everleaf Marine over native tropical garum, rare-breed sheep and whipped citrus; and a Boozeless Corn Yuzu Mule of Seedlip Spice, house hot sauce, cucumber, lime and ginger soda. The bar's boundary-pushing pantry — nitro-ripened grapes, koji, garums and fermented cordials — does as much work in the no-alcohol serves as in the spirituous ones. Menus change often, so past boozeless pours have also included a South Island Sour, a Banana Butter Swizzle, a Plum Wood Martini and a Green Juice, drawing on NA spirits such as Botivo, Sylva Orchard and Tropic All. Staff are well briefed and happy to rebuild almost any cocktail on the list as a booze-free version.