Midnight Apothecary & Lottie “The Cocktail Gardener”
Every day we get sent information about small cocktail and pop-up events happening this weekend or the next, from Aberdeen to Brighton. We always love the sound of them all and try our best to attend as many as possible. One that caught our eye recently is a series of events held under the “Midnight Apothecary” moniker, the most recent event being a tribute to all things Canadian.
The creator of the garden and the cocktail night is Lottie Muir. By day she is the volunteer gardener who has recently transformed the garden above the Brunel’s famous Thames from scrubby wasteland into a magical potager garden teeming with vegetables and flowers. Here is an article from South London Press that gives more background to the garden: http://www.
But on Saturday night she sheds her gardening gloves and dons her apron to become The Cocktail Gardener, moving from flowerbed to bar, to rustle up gorgeous cocktails infused and garnished with ingredients from the garden for “Midnight Apothecary”. It is running every Saturday throughout the summer from 5.30pm till late. Previous incarnations have included honey and basil dacquiris, whisky mint juleps, blackberry martinis, maple martinis, gin and lavender fizz with homemade basil, mint and cucumber syrup.
We heard some great reviews from a couple of people who attended their last, Canadian themed party and are looking forward to the next incarnation. The star cocktails on the menu at their last event were maple syrup martinis and strawberry maple fizz. We heard they were both to-die-for! The “actual” Canadians among the group, and we were told there were quite a few, were much the most skilled in the art of toasting marshmallows before making s’more sandwiches with Graham crackers and chocolate. “This has changed my life forever” said one s`more eater after they popped their s`more cherry.
Each “Midnight Apothecary” event has featured something new and original: they have offered barbecued chipolatas and soup bowls, elderflower frittata… Lottie the gardener gets inspiration from the garden: borage – the leaves are good and the flowers are exquisite – , mint, basil etc… These guys might be relatively new to the cocktail world but I’ve heard nothing but praise for Lottie’s mixes. This is one set of parties we will be putting on our summer-time hit-list.
Photography: Eleanor Salter Thorn
Written by Guest Author
Posted: July 9, 2012