There is a ritual involved in entering Archive & Myth.
There’s a code, or a knock, or possibly a short TikTok dance you’re supposed to perform somewhere around Leicester Square.
I always forget how it works. By the time I’m hovering outside like a confused Deliveroo rider and some poor staff member has to guide me home, I’m starting to think a Martini shouldn’t require an escape-room prequel.
Still, eventually the door opens. Down the stairs lies one of London’s most comfortable cocktail bars, now with a new manager and a complete menu overhaul.
Second Nature brings 16 new signature cocktails to Archive & Myth, created by Jack Sotti, new bar manager Pedro Montero, and the wider team. We’re promised “Precision Martinis, boozy jellies, caviar bumps and nostalgic soft serves”, while 15 of the drinks can also be made without alcohol.
It is a menu full of ideas. Ideas you immediately want to drink.
Welcome to Archive & Myth
The Menu Test: Pass, once you find a candle
Read Second Nature and tell me you don’t want to order everything. It provokes the same reaction as a dog hearing several of its favourite words in quick succession.
Mizuwari combines Toki whisky with banana, fig leaf and jasmine, finished with fluid gels and a plantain crisp. The Hawaiian Margarita brings together Código Rosa Tequila, baijiu, pineapple, tomato and Manchego using a cheese infusion and tomato ice. The Pickle Rickey graces blanco Tequila with dill pickle, apple boba and a pickle taco. A Birthday Cake Ramos is all cream, fizz and fluffy festivity with ingredients like gin and cake batter.
The menu has range. Soixante Quinze combines Renais Gin, St-Germain, elderflower, lemon, white chocolate and Torrontés, served with a caviar bump. Melon Bamboo offers something lighter with Marsala, honeydew melon and coconut, Pearl Diver mixes yuzu, shochu and Wray & Nephew with a brown butter Gardenia mix, and the Nightcap Old Fashioned brings Brother’s Bond bourbon together with Horlicks, cacao, and sandalwood. We didn’t sample much food, just the Salt & Pepper Prawns, but they were bright and spicy and finished quickly.
And of course, the now customary mini serves. A Martini Mineraux of Renais gin, Limestone, chablis, lemon oils, plus a Sazerac de Nata (inspired by the Portuguese dessert pastel de nata) made with Burnt Faith Brandy, Rittenhouse Rye, laminated pastry, egg custard, absinthe. Tone setters for what was to come.
Let there be light
Creativity is often allowed to outrun drinkability, leaving the customer applauding a clever idea they have no desire to order. Second Nature avoids that trap. It is inventive, but it isn’t homework.
The one obstacle is seeing the bloody thing. Archive & Myth is handsome, intimate and almost comically dark. I found myself holding the menu over a candle like Scrooge scrutinising Bob Cratchit’s statutory sick pay. It made me feel like my mum that time she asked the shop assistant if they could turn the lights on in Hollister (you might think I was a classic embarrassed teenager, I was not, I was too busy laughing), but God the whole thing doesn’t half make you feel old. I’m 32, ffs.
Atmosphere matters. But a little more light wouldn’t kill the mood, would it?
The Martini Mineraux, served freezing cold out of a signature flask
The Drinks Test: Pass
The Strawberry & Cream Negroni combines The Botanist Gin, Campari, roasted strawberry and burnt cream.
An Italian would probably react to it as they would cream and chicken in a carbonara. Which is understandable. But also, who doesn’t like cream and chicken?
More importantly, the drink is gorgeous. The roasted fruit and cream soften the Negroni’s harder edges, but it’s not a pudding of a cocktail. Campari’s bitterness keeps everything standing upright. You want to order another the moment it hits your lips.
Drinkin’ easy
The Honeyed Carrot Daiquiri is another neat piece of expectation management. Kakira Rum, Everleaf, carrot, and saffron create a silky, savoury drink that isn’t heartburn in a glass.
The Plum Manhattan takes Rabbit Hole Heigold bourbon and layers it with plum, sesame, and ginger, with an amazake cheong ferment adding further complexity. It is much lighter than its billing suggests. I usually want a little more heft from a Manhattan, but it fits something of a theme here, everything drinks so easy.
That is what a cocktail bar is supposed to achieve.
Pickle Rickey, Frozen Oolong Pornstar, and Birthday Cake Ramos
The Second Round Test: An emphatic pass
The strongest part of Archive & Myth is not hidden inside a centrifuge or brown butter Gardenia mix. It is the hospitality.
The music is pitched so it creates a vibe, but you can still hear others (and the playlist is strong), the room is cosy but retains a glamour for a sense of occasion (good date night spot), and there is a genuine communal atmosphere. One of our table came from work and had on them a bottle of whisky from their brand. Instead of punishing this occupational hazard, the staff joined us for a dram, and people who genuinely enjoy what they do chose to do exactly that.
Pedro Montero is central to that feeling. He has worked across Europe, Asia, and South America during 14 years in hospitality, with a CV that includes The American Bar at The Stafford, three and a half years at Kwānt Mayfair, and the founding of Elevated, his own speakeasy in Coron in the Philippines. He has the usual cocktail competition credentials, and is fascinated by vintage spirits and cocktail history.
The technical authority is there. But none of Montero’s expertise arrives with any stiffness. He is warm, informed and as interested in the people drinking what he makes as the serve itself. He is an advocate in the purest sense, in an industry that can’t afford bad ambassadors.
Pedro Montero has recently joined the team. He’s a strong addition.
Archive & Myth Second Nature Review
Second Nature is described as a refinement rather than a reinvention. Archive & Myth has not abandoned what made it work. Make a menu that doesn’t lack in technical detail that customers can still understand and, crucially, enjoy.
Among the small complaints is a menu that makes you want to order. Drinks make you want to keep drinking. People make you want to stay.
New menu, new manager, no dramas. Just make sure you remember to turn off your phone’s flashlight when you leave.
