EQUAL PARTS

Half the list is built in literal equal measures, and the stated point of that half is drinks "simple enough to recreate at home," which is an odd thing for a bar to want and the reason this one is interesting (Top 50 Cocktail Bars).

Why go

Michael Sager opened it in mid-2023 as a sister to Sager + Wilde and Fare, in a corner room on Hackney Road with a sage-green tiled entrance, candlelight behind shutters, and a curved mid-century back bar with plants spilling over it (CLASS). It is a listening bar, and Time Out's point is that it is the one that took the drinks as seriously as the records: "London has been overrun with 'listening bars' in the last couple of years, but few, if any, take such a fastidious approach to their drinks list" ref. The list runs about fifteen cocktails across two halves, the equal-measure builds and a Signatures section that leans savoury with mezcal and calvados and rotates every three months, over a back bar weighted toward agave. The house practice is unusual too: every member of staff takes part in developing drinks, and Top 50 records training the next generation as a stated priority.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Flor, which is the drink Jeff flagged. Time Out's description is the one to go on: "a clean, pleasingly saline and thoroughly refreshing martini made with olive oil-washed vodka, fino sherry and distilled tomato water with just a hint of basil" ref. CLASS names the vodka as Haku and had it at GBP 12 in January 2024, alongside Mr Fernando, "Brugal 1888, Punt e Mes, Averna + walnuts" ref.
• Avoid: treating it as dinner. The food is olives and nuts, full stop. And do not walk in fixed on a Signature you read about, since that half turns over quarterly.

What locals & experts say

• CLASS, Hamish Smith (Jan 2024), 9/10: his summary of the concept is "There is no grandiloquent conceptual pretence, Equal Parts is a bar. And it does being a bar really rather well," and he singles out the acoustics and the service, which "is there when it's needed, but otherwise fades into the backdrop." He signs off: "I wonder if it's actually possible to not like this bar." ref
• Time Out London, Rosie Hewitson (Mar 2025), 5 out of 5: on the Flor, "It's everything that's good about the savoury cocktail trend, and dangerously drinkable." Her tip is about the no/low list: "so convincing was an alcohol-free negroni that my sober friend thought he'd been given the wrong drink." ref
• Top 50 Cocktail Bars, One to Watch 2025: the award badge on its venue page, with Sager quoted on the reason the records matter as much as the drinks: "Beverages are just one reason people visit bars. We aim to offer something more." ref
• Worth knowing what it has not won: there is no Equal Parts page on Europe's 50 Best Bars 2026, so despite the company it keeps on Hackney Road, this is a watch-list bar rather than a ranked one.
• Local rec: Jeff has it as a local rec for the Flor, the distilled tomato cocktail, with awards in 2025. He does not name who recommended it. REAL.

Good to know

• Timing: open seven days. Monday to Thursday 4pm to midnight, Friday 4pm to 1am, Saturday midday to 1am, Sunday midday to midnight (venue).
• Booking: the venue takes bookings and does private hire, but publishes no policy, so it is worth reserving for a weekend evening in a room this small.
• Price: GBP 12 a cocktail as of January 2024, and Top 50 puts the range at three pound signs. Treat the figure as two and a half years old.
• If someone is not drinking: this is the pick. The no/low list is small and, per Time Out, good enough that a sober guest assumed his negroni was the real one.
• Where: 245 Hackney Road, E2 8NA, the corner room. The master CSV had this as Haggerston, which put the pin nearly 5km out; Haggerston station is about 900m north, and the venue sits in the London Borough of Hackney.
• Dietary: nothing published. No allergen, vegan or gluten-free statement on the venue site.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 4, inspected 13 September 2023. That is a Good rating, but the inspection is older than two of the three reviews above.

Craft signals (cocktails: a quarterly rebuild)

Two signals for the cadence. The Signatures half of the list rotates every three months, which the bar states itself and which is why the entry's avoid-line warns against arriving fixed on one drink, and the fixed half is a self-imposed equal-measure constraint rather than a house lineup that has stopped moving. The second is the peer read: a Top 50 Cocktail Bars One to Watch in 2025. Four list rebuilds a year against an agave-weighted back bar is real programme work for a room this size.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Local rec for for Flor - distilled tomato cocktail; awards in 2025" REAL.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — A bar whose flagship drink is olive-oil-washed vodka cut with fino sherry and distilled tomato water, sold at GBP 12, in a room with rare records and acoustics a trade reviewer went out of his way to praise. The list is split between drinks built in literal equal measures, deliberately simple enough to rebuild at home, and a savoury-leaning seasonal half that turns over quarterly. CLASS gave it 9/10 and Time Out five stars, and Top 50 Cocktail Bars made it a One to Watch in 2025. It is a detour rather than a pilgrimage because it is a small neighbourhood room with no major placing to its name, and the kitchen is a bowl of olives.