Mr Fogg's Apothecary

Under the dry ice and the smoke bubbles there is beeswax-infused tequila, a bergamot syrup and a pandan leaf syrup, which is more house work than a themed bar usually bothers with.

Why go

The bar sits under 34 Brook Street, opposite Claridge's, down a staircase into a long room walled with apothecary bottles, where drinks arrive in medicinal glassware and the team describe themselves as prescribing and dispensing (Mr Fogg's). It is the sixth or so venue Inception has opened under this name, and The Nudge's account of it is the useful one: each site gets its own identity inside the group's Victoriana, and this one's identity is the cocktails (The Nudge). That claim holds up on the ingredient list. Eyes Wide Open is beeswax-infused tequila with corn liqueur, honey water and smoked sea salt. Coco Pro Quo is alcohol-free and still built from matcha, rice milk, coconut water and a pandan leaf syrup. Behind the main room is the Elixir Room, which has its own door onto the street and runs as a separate bar, and on Saturday afternoons it hosts a two-hour cocktail-making session.

Order this / avoid

• Order: Eyes Wide Open, for the beeswax infusion. Quack's Compound if you want the theatre with it, since it comes in a flask over dry ice. Frenchman's Constitution, which you pour yourself from the chilled bottle it was mixed in. Coco Pro Quo if you are not drinking, because it was actually built.
• Avoid: Monday. Rating the place on the smoke. Reading a Top 50 Cocktail Bars listing for Mr Fogg's as being about this address.

What locals & experts say

• Jason Allen, The Nudge, placing it inside the group and saying what makes it different: "the latest pin in the map for the burgeoning Fogg's empire... the Apothecary is setting itself apart from the others by leaning very firmly into its cocktails." ref
• CAMRA's West London branch, on what the site is: "This site is now one of the growing Mr. Fogg's chain, named Mr. Fogg's Apothecary. It is primarily a cocktail bar also selling bottled beers but no draught beer." Their price note is one line: "Expect to pay Mayfair prices." ref
• Top 50 Cocktail Bars, on which Fogg's is on the list: "There are four cocktail bars using Mr Fogg's name, including a separate tavern and gin parlour in Covent Garden, a botanical house in Fitzrovia and Mr Fogg's Residence in Mayfair, which has made it onto the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list this year." That is the Residence at 15 Bruton Lane, not this bar. ref
• No critic has written about this address. Nothing reached carries an independent verdict on what is in the glass here, and none of the cocktail-programme signals (menu-launch cadence, competition results, a named bar lead) could be found for it. That is why the ruling sits where it does.

Good to know

• Where: 34 Brook Street, Mayfair W1K 5DN, opposite Claridge's. The site was Balls Brothers and then Mayfair Exchange before Inception took it.
• Sites: this is one of a group. The others named in our sources are Mr Fogg's Residence (15 Bruton Lane, Mayfair), Mr Fogg's Tavern and Gin Parlour (Covent Garden), Mr Fogg's House of Botanicals (Fitzrovia), Mr Fogg's Society of Exploration and Mr Fogg's Market Tavern (Covent Garden). Awards and reviews attach to one address at a time.
• Two rooms: the main Apothecary Room, and the Elixir Room behind it, which has its own street entrance and can be booked out.
• Booking: take one. Mayfair prices, per CAMRA.
• Food: nibbles, cheese and charcuterie. There is no kitchen worth planning around.
• Saturdays: a two-hour Cocktail Experiments session including three drinks.
• Extras: private spirit lockers if you want to keep a bottle there.
• Hygiene: rating 5, inspected 29 April 2024, Westminster ref.

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing from Jeff. The saved-places export carries this row with an empty Note column, so jeff_note stays empty.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — Go if you are already in Mayfair and you want a drink with a show attached. Inception runs at least six bars under this name and this is one of them, so the format arrived here rather than being invented here, and a group rolling out a theme has to prove the drink rather than inherit the reputation. Set the theatre aside first, because that is what it is: the dry ice, the smoke bubble that pops when you touch it, the medicinal bottles and the weighing scales are the room, and the room is weighed after the glass. What survives that test is better than expected. Beeswax-infused tequila with corn liqueur, honey water and smoked sea salt is real house work, so is a bergamot syrup and a pandan leaf syrup, and the alcohol-free Coco Pro Quo is built with the same attention as the drinks with booze in them, which most themed bars cannot be bothered to do. What is missing is any outside judgment of this address. There is no menu-launch record, no competition result, no named bar lead and no critic, and the Top 50 Cocktail Bars listing that keeps turning up in searches belongs to Mr Fogg's Residence up the road, not here. So it does one thing well and it stops there. Mayfair prices, and the Elixir Room at the back has its own street door if you want the smaller version.