Tipped

funk bar! (w Cretan food!)

February 06, 2009

I finally found a chilled out bar with live music and quickly made cocktails at a decent price.
I went to meet some friends on a Friday evening. While all the pubs in the area were spilling with the "after work" crowd, this place was pleasantly welcoming. The crowd was young; on the big screen there were exactly those types of old 70's movies that are great for imagery.
What I liked about it: the cocktail menu, the prices of the cocktails, i love muted cinema screens, i love live music, I love red velvet walls - reminiscent of jazz bars world over.
The most unique thing was the absolutely Cretan (Greek) menu - at least at the bar. Being with my Cretan friends, we were actually all quite pleased.
If you want a place that is has that mix of cool and funk, with no pretense, this is the place for you.
Full wine menu, nice beer bar, a variety of martinis and cocktails - being one that frequents the Borrough Market area, I will be back there for sure.
And the friendly staff behind bar had a themed crimped hippy hair style that was nice for eye candy!

Keywords: bar, martinis, cocktails, jazz, funk, cinema, big screen

Bad cocktails

September 01, 2008

Despite being relatively quiet generally, the bar area was crowded on Friday night and quite noisy. The front windows were opened up, with the smokers gathered outside forming a barely penetrable barrier to the Roxy as their smoke drifted inside.

We got to the bar and ordered two "Borough Market G&Ts".

It's supposed to be gin infused with lemongrass and lime leaves, served with tonic and orange bitters and garnished with a sprig of lemon thyme and a lime leaf.

We received: two run of the mill G&Ts, without any trace of other flavours and no garnish.
We drank half and left.

Poor show, Roxy!

Keywords: bad cocktails, crowded, noisy, smoky

Cocktails and Celluloid

April 25, 2008

Quirky late night cocktail bar and cinema.
From the outside the Roxy looks fairly non descript, located a little off the main drag near Borough Market. Enter through the long narrow bar area, and towards the back is a large room filled with diner style booths, and a mix of tables, chairs and sofas. The cocktails are so-so but reasonably priced, and the food is pretty average – but then the food isn’t the draw here, it’s more a fallback to soak up any alcohol.
The great thing about the Roxy is it’s opening hours – 1am during the week and 2:30am on weekends – a plus in this area once the pubs shut and you don’t want to find yourself in a dodgy club under one of the railway arches around London Bridge. But even better are the “nights” – a couple of times there have been poker championships (brilliant voyeuristic fun) and of course the cinema nights. The great thing is that it’s not set out like a cinema, so you can still sit and enjoy your drinks and have a (quiet-ish) chat with your friends, whilst the film rolls on in the background. A while back they were showing the original Karate Kid – a great trip down memory lane.. Most others on this evening were of similar age (30-something), and when Daniel-san won his fight, we were all jumping up and down, shaking our fists in the air to celebrate – so much so , that the venue rewound the fight scene and played it again for us! Brilliant!

Keywords: cocktails, late night bar, cinema