Bermondsey Street is one of my favourite haunts. With restaurants such as Zucca and Pizarro and the White Cube Art Gallery the area has been transformed into a Bobo destination as well as becoming a local creative hub. Set in a converted antiques market is Antico, an Italian restaurant run by a couple of Theo Randall alumni, who have rather smartly recently turned the basement into a gin and cocktail bar. Now gin is all the rage at the moment but my last big gin jaunt was last summer at the London Gin Club so I definitely felt ready for another.

I turned up at 214 with her Ladyship who commented as we came down the stairs into the dark and rather sexy basement space that it felt a little like entering a 50s styled speakeasy. To get things going we started with a Tom Collins-lemon, gin, home-made soda water and unusually a small shot of Campari-it was refreshing and a great palate cleanser with the Campari adding a depth of flavour rather than the bitterness that is usually associated with it.

214‘s USP is that the bar team make their own tonic water from a blend of sugar syrup, citric acid and powdered quinine. I was really excited by this and we wanted to taste the tonic on its own and then to do a G&T taste test.

214 has a wide choice of gins but for this important research work it was suggested that Martin Miller’s gin, a London Dry gin made in London from pure Icelandic springwater and ten botanicals, would be suitable. The tonics would be the in-house variety and the market leader Schweppes.

The 214 tonic on its own is light-brown in colour and not as sweet and more pleasantly medicinal in flavour than the Schweppes-this is unsurprising given the drink’s roots as a carrier for the anti-malarial qualities of quinine in the tropics. It also makes you realise how the front end of the the Schweppes tonic is overpoweringly sugary with the bite of the quinine only coming at the end. With the addition of the Martin Miller gin the difference was marked with the 214 tonic bringing out its cucumber notes which were pretty much crushed by the Schweppes. Like most people I have drunk and enjoyed the classic Gordon’s and Schweppes combo for years but with the new wave of gins it is clear that for the flavours to shine through, a different approach to tonic is needed. Fever Tree tonic is the tonic du jour in upmarket restaurants and bars but in The Hedonist’s opinion the 214 tonic is the best for boutique gins.

At this point in the proceedings things were starting to get pleasantly blurry and with more rigorous testing ahead it made sense to eat something. Fortunately at 214 there is a small menu featuring bowls of pasta from Antico- my Monkfish risotto was suitably unctuous with the monkfish perfectly cooked and not rubbery as it can be and the creamy nutty rice enlivened by a bit of spice.

Her ladyship’s dish of Rabbit tortellini came as a bowl of fresh al dente buttery pasta which wasn’t overpowered by the rabbit. Both were delicious.

Suitably fortified we were now ready for the main event-a flight of three G&Ts chosen from 214’s large selection nattily served on a wooden tray. You are given tasting notes for the three gins but not told which is which and your mission is to match the flavours to the gins-the answers are placed in a wax-sealed envelope that is only to be opened at the end. We had chosen  the ‘International Flight’ and only managed to get one out of the three correct but we had an excellent time in doing so…

214 is a really fun place to go whether you are a gin wonk or not. The staff really care about what they are doing, spending time talking through the gins and explaining about the tonic and they can also mix a mean non gin-based cocktail. The music is eclectic, hip and not too loud, prices are reasonable and the food is a cut above what you might expect. It’s great to have another place in Bermondsey St to hang out!

The Hedonist was a guest of 214 Bermondsey