Premier Hospitality

Mint Gun Club

Mint Gun Club
Written by Roma Publications

Mint Gun Club

The Mint Gun Club is a local Tea House, Bar and Delicatessen on Brooke Road in the heart of Stoke Newington. The brainchild of renowned bartender and drinks expert, Richard Hunt and business partner Tim Coutts, the Mint Gun Club specialises in delicious apÄ—ritifs, globally-inspired cocktails and an array of exotic delicacies.

Having lived and worked around the globe all his life, Rich’s inspiration for the venue comes from his love of travel and from growing up with his family in ex-patriate communities in exotic, far-flung destinations. From fan-wafted aperitifs on sun-baked terraces to refreshing teas in blossom-shaded gardens, the Mint Gun Club aims to transport a slice of this exciting, convivial world to North London through an innovative menu that draws inspiration from this diverse cultural thread.

The Mint Gun Club is a small, bright, relaxed space: the design references remembered details from a life spent in expat communities and reflects this cultural overlap. The space combines Modern European and Scandinavian elegance with rustic furnishing and splashes of exotic detail, including Moroccan tiling, Polynesian artefacts and Indonesian house boars and palms fronds.

Mint Gun Club

Speaking to Premier Hospitality magazine, Mint Gun Club owner Rich Hunt said: “We didn’t want to do too much. We have come in, redecorated the space and used it how it was when we found it. The feel is bright, fun, vibrant and I think most importantly, light hearted. You should be able to walk in and feel like you are somewhere else or that you could be somewhere else.”

Served throughout the day in beautiful individual tea pots and crookery is the Mint Gun Club’s selection of single-estate and rare blended teas from all over the world. Dealing only in loose-leaf, each personally selected blend is from responsible and sustainable producers. Alongside the untraditional house tea, the inventive menu will also showcase underused Tisane with a wide selection of herbal infusions.

The Mint Gun Club High Tea will be the cornerstone of the venue and an exotic take on afternoon tea. Two alternative high teas will be available: the smaller “Tiffin Tea” and elaborate High Tea. The “Tiffin Tea” is served in a hand-painted Indian layered lunchbox – a tiffin tin – lined with banana leaves while High Tea is an extravagant affair, served with English sparkling wine. Both tea menus will feature three or four layers of exotic sweet and savoury treats including mocha, proper marshmallow, cucumber kimchi sandwiches and the MGC twist on the staple Club Sandwich.

The pantry-style food offering at the Mint Gun Club draws ingredients from Middle Eastern, Asian and Mediterranean larders: featuring ingredients as diverse as kimchi and daikon, labneh and chermoula. Whether they are made in-house or sourced from the finest suppliers, the food at the Mint Gun Club is all about guests picking and choosing their favourite specialities to form a platter of spreads, salsas, breads, pickled fruits and salads.

The drinks menu at the Mint Gun Club features a beautiful selection of simple, avant-garde cocktails. Divided into four sections, the menu starts with a selection of Gimlets, which are both diminutive and fragrant, then moves on to an extensive Apėrtif menu that combines innovative blends of Vermouth, Sherry and Amaro with ingredients that conjure up the feeling of a tropical summer’s evening. This is followed by a tonics and sodas selection that features light, sparkling long drinks that capture balmy equatorial nights. Finally, as the evening draws on, is the cocktails and nightcaps section, a list of concoctions that experiment with the palate and are as innovative as they are delicious.

Rich added: “For me, this is the centre of everything. It is something of a baby and I have assigned myself to it and feel like I owe the project everything that I have got.”

Tim Coutts concluded: “From a design and build point of view, I am catching my breath until the next one. Until the next time, we stand by everything we have built.”

Mint Gun Club

 

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Roma Publications