How better to celebrate St Patrick’s Day 2017 than by enjoying the top-notch selection of Irish whiskey and poitín at The Sun Tavern? We’re already putting together our plans for St Patrick’s Day 2017 – keep an eye out here for updates! In the meantime, to whet your appetite, check out photos from this year’s below.
How better to celebrate St Patrick’s Day 2017 than by enjoying the top-notch selection of Irish whiskey and poitín at The Sun Tavern?
We’re already putting together our plans for St Patrick’s Day 2017 – keep an eye out here for updates! In the meantime, to whet your appetite, check out photos from this year’s below.
If you’re in the Bethnal side of Bethnal Green Road on an August Wednesday, you should pop your head in here! We’ve got whiskey! The Whiskey Wednesday collab for August meant the lads in the bar we’re getting stuck into crafting drinks using The Irishman Founders Reserve. Gavin McGowan-Madoo, who looks after the Walsh […]
If you’re in the Bethnal side of Bethnal Green Road on an August Wednesday, you should pop your head in here! We’ve got whiskey!
The Whiskey Wednesday collab for August meant the lads in the bar we’re getting stuck into crafting drinks using The Irishman Founders Reserve. Gavin McGowan-Madoo, who looks after the Walsh Whiskey Distillery’s The Irishman, came and had a chat about about whiskey on a Wednesday.
The blend of Founder’s Reserve is made up of two types of Whiskey, Single Malt and Single Pot Still. It’s also triple distilled and then after, matured in bourbon casks. This provides a great base for whiskey heavy cocktails and mixed drinks.
Have a look at what you could pick up on a Wednesday here at the bar…
Summer Toddy
Irishman Founders, Apple Juice, Lemon Juice, Spiced Honey & Mint. Topped with Soda.
It’s pretty well known that Irish ‘whiskey’ is spelt with an ‘e’ but scotch is simply ‘whisky.’ What’s not so well known is why… The term ‘whiskey’ derives from he gaelic ‘uisce beatha’ – pronounced “uh-iss-keh beh-ah” – meaning water of life. This was abbreviated to ‘uiskie’ some time in the 17th century, which later […]
It’s pretty well known that Irish ‘whiskey’ is spelt with an ‘e’ but scotch is simply ‘whisky.’ What’s not so well known is why…
The term ‘whiskey’ derives from he gaelic ‘uisce beatha’ – pronounced “uh-iss-keh beh-ah” – meaning water of life. This was abbreviated to ‘uiskie’ some time in the 17th century, which later became ‘whiskie’ and then “whisky.”
So whisky basically just means ‘water’ – kind of like ‘vodka’ does…
How this became ‘whiskey’ is up for debate – some people claim that the shift happened so that frugal Scottish printers could save a bit of cash by making the word a bit shorter – however most think that the spelling difference arose in the 1870s when Irish distillers tried to distinguish themselves from the much poorer quality Scottish whisky that flooded the market after the invention of the Coffey still. Others think the split is down to the slight difference between the Irish gaelic and the Scots gaelic – ‘uisce beatha’ as opposed to ‘uisge beatha.’
The large number of Irish emigrants to the States meant that the Americans adopted the Irish spelling – the Canadians and the Japanese chose to follow the Scots because… well – we don’t know why…
It remains a touchy subject for many – as famed New York Times Eric Asimov found out after being absolutely inundated with complaints when he used the Irish spelling for an article all about Scottish single malts.
To be honest, we don’t really mind how it’s spelt – we just know we love drinking it! Come join us at the best place to drink Irish whiskey in London – The Sun Tavern, Bethnal Green!
Even if the weather hasn’t been that great this summer, the Whiskey Wednesday cocktails certainly have! For the month of July, The Sun Tavern’s bespoke Whiskey Wednesday cocktail offering was in ties with Jameson Irish Whiskey. Murphy did a great job orchestrating the drinks, which definitely received a noticeable amount of interest. Jameson wanted […]
Even if the weather hasn’t been that great this summer, the Whiskey Wednesday cocktails certainly have!
For the month of July, The Sun Tavern’s bespoke Whiskey Wednesday cocktail offering was in ties with Jameson Irish Whiskey. Murphy did a great job orchestrating the drinks, which definitely received a noticeable amount of interest.
Jameson wanted to use their new additions, Jameson Caskmates and Crested. The Caskmates offers a nose of slight pot still spices with apple and pear scents and featured in the Bow Street Runners. Crested brings a different take on Irish whiskey to the bar with a sherry like, fruity and chocolaty taste and was the base of the Róisín Buí and the Hell’s Ditch.
The Oyster Boy will be giving out his delectable oysters at ‘East End Of The Line’ at The Sun Tavern to celebrate the coming of the Night Tube. He can also be found shucking at Broadway Market & Leyton Food Market each Saturday and Columbia Road Market every Sunday. Can you tell us […]
The Oyster Boy will be giving out his delectable oysters at ‘East End Of The Line’ at The Sun Tavern to celebrate the coming of the Night Tube.
He can also be found shucking at Broadway Market & Leyton Food Market each Saturday and Columbia Road Market every Sunday.
Can you tell us the relevance of oysters In East London?
While it has a reputation of decadence and high society now, back in the day, Victorian times and before, around Hackney and Whitechapel oysters and lobsters were the food of the poor. There was actually a legislation that grouped lobsters, oysters and rats as being illegal to be the sole food of prisoners because they were thought so poorly of.
They were like, “You can’t just give them that crap”. That was to do with the quality of the water and of how they were handled. As technology’s moved on, we can bring them in from cleaner waters like Chelmsford in Essex and La Rochelle in France. You can now get incredible, incredible oysters. So they’ve moved in the same way as East London, it used to be a working class area and oysters used to be a working class food.
What’s the difference between a Rock and a Native?
Native oysters are European oysters. They’ve always been from European waters. So if you hear about the Romans or the Celts having oysters they’d have small, clam-like, flat ones. During the 40’s and rationing we decimated our native oyster population, so we brought over the Pacific Rock Oyster from North America which are much hardier and don’t have the same breeding pattern. They’ve been here almost 80 years now so they’re like third generation immigrants, but they’re Native Rock Oysters now.
Chew or swallow?
Chew! Chew! Chew! Chew with your tongue against the roof of your mouth. It’s not a cheap experience but it’s a bloody delicious experience! If you swallow, it’s like getting a great whiskey and shooting it.
Paul Day, one of the regular DJ’s to play here at The Sun Tavern, has shared with us his Top 5 Tracks to play whilst people chat, drink and dance. They are as follows… The Sonics – Have Love Will Travel The Modern Lovers – Roadrunner Elvis Costello – Pump It Up […]
Paul Day, one of the regular DJ’s to play here at The Sun Tavern, has shared with us his Top 5 Tracks to play whilst people chat, drink and dance.
For the month of June, The Sun Tavern’s rotating Whiskey Wednesday collaboration was with The Dubliner Irish Whiskey. As a new Irish Whiskey, The Dubliner were very keen to be apart of what we do and really try to showcase how their spirits work in cocktails. Introducing Irish Whiskey to new people through cocktails […]
For the month of June, The Sun Tavern’s rotating Whiskey Wednesday collaboration was with The Dubliner Irish Whiskey.
As a new Irish Whiskey, The Dubliner were very keen to be apart of what we do and really try to showcase how their spirits work in cocktails.
Introducing Irish Whiskey to new people through cocktails is a really good way of doing so, because cocktails are already a way of drinking that people like and are familiar with.
We also did an interview with Darryl McNally, Master Distiller of The Dubliner, and when we asked him about what he thought about Whiskey Wednesday’s this is what he said…
“For the younger generation, it really opens them up to whiskey and changes the perception that only old men drink whiskey because your introducing whiskey to them in a format that they already have an interest in which is cocktails.”
You can catch the full interview on The Umbrella Project website here…
The Whiskey Wednesday cocktails look a lot like these…
On the last day of Field Day 2016, one of the best small festivals in Victoria Park… After party. The Sun Tavern. Just down the road from Victoria Park in Bethnal Green, we were offering 25% off to all festival go-ers and Saul from the Fat White Family was doing a DJ set. […]
On the last day of Field Day 2016, one of the best small festivals in Victoria Park…
After party. The Sun Tavern.
Just down the road from Victoria Park in Bethnal Green, we were offering 25% off to all festival go-ers and Saul from the Fat White Family was doing a DJ set.
Saul’s tunes really kept the festival vibes flowing and carry on right till close.
All in all it was a success and we will be throwing after parties for all the Victoria Park festivals on the horizon!
It was one in one out towards the end and we really didn’t want to turn people away but it was jammers! Sorry!
Flattered to be entered, even better to win something. We must say to be considered one of the top 30 pubs in London within our first year of being open was an achievement in itself and only goes to show that if you invest in your staff, product and ethos, you will be rewarded. […]
Flattered to be entered, even better to win something.
We must say to be considered one of the top 30 pubs in London within our first year of being open was an achievement in itself and only goes to show that if you invest in your staff, product and ethos, you will be rewarded.
When the lads received and invite to the award ceremony we were a bit taken back. In all honesty we hadn’t been pushing it all that much, other than some tweets and facebook posts, so you could imagine the lads got a little excited and thought they might have to buy a nice jacket!
When Ciaran and Barry went along to the award ceremony I remember them saying “it got down to the last 5 and we hadn’t been called, then the last 3, so we’re like sweet, bronze, right? Then the last 2 and we were called out!!! Best New Comer and 2nd place aint bad!”
We are big into our Irish Whiskey over here at The Sun Tavern in Bethnal Green. We have one of the widest selections in London, and have been working with Irish Whiskey distilleries a like to bring you great whiskey cocktails on our house cocktail menu, and on Wednesdays for our Whiskey Wednesday £5 cocktail […]
We are big into our Irish Whiskey over here at The Sun Tavern in Bethnal Green.
We have one of the widest selections in London, and have been working with Irish Whiskey distilleries a like to bring you great whiskey cocktails on our house cocktail menu, and on Wednesdays for our Whiskey Wednesday £5 cocktail menu.
We also enjoy really good fair trade, specialty, coffee and espresso provided by the guys over at Black Sheep. We believe that it is the perfect kind of Espresso for all the coffees that we make, mixing with booze and cocktails too.
As quite a few of the bar tenders here at The Sun Tavern are Irish, they’re quite partial to a good Irish Whiskey and aren’t strangers to dropping a bit in their coffee! They’ve come up with The Sun Tavern Irish Coffee that tastes grand…
The Nutmeg gives it a really nice aroma, Powers’ Gold Label Whiskey and the Espresso compliment one another effortlessly. The Demerara Sugar and Stout Cream blend to give a hint of creamy sweetness, but never too intense. It makes a good after lunch drink to get the day going or a mellow night cap, either way tastes great, and you should get down and try one!
*For more info, ask at the bar at The Sun Tavern, Cocktail and Whiskey bar London*
Poitín fuelled piss up We might be a long way from the land of the four-leaf clover here in Bethnal Green, but we’ve still got plenty of Poitín, Irish Whiskey and Irish bartenders We had a craic’ing night here in The Sun Tavern, bit of an alternative one as there were no Guinness […]
Poitín fuelled piss up
We might be a long way from the land of the four-leaf clover here in Bethnal Green, but we’ve still got plenty of Poitín, Irish Whiskey and Irish bartenders
We had a craic’ing night here in The Sun Tavern, bit of an alternative one as there were no Guinness hats only Teeling Caps!
We teamed up with Bán Poitín to come up with an ace bespoke cocktail menu, like the Galway Bay, Power to you Elbow, Mountain Dew and the Bán & Black, split over tankard and short style cocktails with Dave Mulligan behind the bar most of the night!
Fourpure Brewing Co. provided us with their sweet and refreshing Oatmeal stout so no one was left out.
We thought since we’re in the East End, we’d bring a bit of fusion for the food front and do traditional Bethnal Green style Pie & Mash from G. Kelly’s Pie & Mash shop across the road and it went down a treat (seeing as the Irish still love potatoes haha!).
We also did a little video interview with Theresa from G’ Kelly’s Pie & Mash if you want to check it out, she is pretty comedy
We also had a live Folk band to kick it off and DJ’s to carry on through the night. All in all it was a great one, by far the most packed we’ve ever been, and definitely topped last year, which we thought might not be possible given how good that was!
Here are some of the Bán Poitín cocktails that were being served on the night…
Galway Bay
Bán Poitín, Homemade Lime Cordial, Citric Acid & a Bay Leaf
You like Coffee right…? Ever tried Poitín…? “Let us tell you they go great together.” You might already know, we love Poitín here at The Sun Tavern and we also love coffee. Then a bartender had a brain wave one day and thought… “We sell great Coffee, we specialise in Poitín…” and the light bulb […]
You like Coffee right…? Ever tried Poitín…?
“Let us tell you they go great together.”
You might already know, we love Poitín here at The Sun Tavern and we also love coffee. Then a bartender had a brain wave one day and thought…
“We sell great Coffee, we specialise in Poitín…”
and the light bulb above his head turned on. Obviously everyone including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell (who ever said it… haha) loves Espresso Martini’s. They’re often requested at the bar so why not make our own The Sun Tavern Espresso Martini using Bán Poitín…?
As Poitín is becoming more and more established in it’s own out right booze genre, we want to be at the forefront of innovating the use of Poitín in cocktails and we think Poitín and Espresso together will bring it to the masses and maybe choose Poitín over other clear spirits one day.
*For more info, ask at the bar at The Sun Tavern, Whiskey and Poitín bar in London*
You probably already know or have been to all the cocktail bars in Shoreditch for a mid week tipple… This month you should definitely head over to our cocktail bar, The Sun Tavern right by Bethnal Green tube. As we mentioned on our previous News post about Whiskey Wednesday’s, our cocktail bar has seen the likes […]
You probably already know or have been to all the cocktail bars in Shoreditch for a mid week tipple…
This month you should definitely head over to our cocktail bar, The Sun Tavern right by Bethnal Green tube.
As we mentioned on our previous News post about Whiskey Wednesday’s, our cocktail bar has seen the likes of a few different bespoke cocktail menu’s floating around.
We our trying to explore more avenues of whiskey being used as a base in cocktails, Irish Whiskey in particular. These cocktail menus are in collaboration with different whiskey distilleries every month to bring you great Whiskey based cocktails every Wednesday as well as our recently updated house cocktail menu.
A shot of Rittenhouse Straight Rye 100 and a shot of homemade pickle brine
Ask at the bar for more information about up and coming Whiskey Wednesdays here at our cocktail bar in Bethnal Green, the best place for Irish whiskey in London.
If you’ve been having cocktails during the week around Bethnal Green recently, you may have noticed that every Wednesday in The Sun Tavern there is a bespoke cocktail menu on the tables. These cocktail menus are in collaboration with a different Whiskey distillery each month. The Sun Tavern kicked the year off with Woodford Reserve […]
If you’ve been having cocktails during the week around Bethnal Green recently, you may have noticed that every Wednesday in The Sun Tavern there is a bespoke cocktail menu on the tables. These cocktail menus are in collaboration with a different Whiskey distillery each month.
The Sun Tavern kicked the year off with Woodford Reserve in January, followed by Glendalough Distillery in February and the current cocktail menu for March is with Bushmills Distillery. Pop in if you’re in the Bethnal Green area for some delicious £6 cocktails!
The current Bushmills cocktails look a lot like these…
Local Hero – Theresa of G. Kelly’s Pie & Mash in Bethnal Green Theresa has lived and worked in G. Kelly’s Pie & Mash shop on Bethnal Green road, just over the road and down a bit for us here at The Sun Tavern. She tells us about some of the history of Bethnal Green, how […]
Local Hero – Theresa of G. Kelly’s Pie & Mash in Bethnal Green
Theresa has lived and worked in G. Kelly’s Pie & Mash shop on Bethnal Green road, just over the road and down a bit for us here at The Sun Tavern. She tells us about some of the history of Bethnal Green, how it has changed over the years and her involvement with the Pie & Mash Shop and our 2016 St. Patrick’s Day Party.
People come in and they go ‘What pies do you do’ and I say ‘Mince beef’ …’yea, but what else’. ‘no, minced beef’.
Should be good #craic on the 17th!! #StPatricksDay
Rich Yong – Camden Town Brewery Here we have Rich Yong from Camden Town Brewery sitting in The Sun Tavern, telling us why Drink Up London’s London Beer Week 2016 is a good thing. Giving us some of the do’s and don’t’s when it comes to £3 pints and £5 Boilermakers.
Rich Yong – Camden Town Brewery
Here we have Rich Yong from Camden Town Brewery sitting in The Sun Tavern, telling us why Drink Up London’s London Beer Week 2016 is a good thing.
Giving us some of the do’s and don’t’s when it comes to £3 pints and £5 Boilermakers.
Spice up your Sunday with our ‘hangover cure’ Bloody Mary Menu. This will include a TST twist on a classic Bloody Mary, the Bloody Murphy and finally, the Mad Mary. The Sun Tavern Bloody Mary – £7.50 “Our twist on a classic” Vodka, Sun Spice Mix, Fresh Tomato Juice, Celery Bloody Murphy – £7.50 “An Irish inspired take” Poitin, Sun […]
Spice up your Sunday with our ‘hangover cure’ Bloody Mary Menu.
This will include a TST twist on a classic Bloody Mary, the Bloody Murphy and finally, the Mad Mary.
The Sun Tavern Bloody Mary – £7.50 “Our twist on a classic”
Scotch Whisky always seems more fitting in December, see how the Scots brave the bitter winds and icy evenings. In Bethnal Green we do it slightly differently in the shape of Scotch cocktails. For December’s Whiskey Wednesday bespoke cocktail menu we teamed up with Ballantine’s Blended Scotch Whisky to bring you these Scotch serves. Christmas […]
Scotch Whisky always seems more fitting in December, see how the Scots brave the bitter winds and icy evenings.
In Bethnal Green we do it slightly differently in the shape of Scotch cocktails. For December’s Whiskey Wednesday bespoke cocktail menu we teamed up with Ballantine’s Blended Scotch Whisky to bring you these Scotch serves.
Christmas Mac
Ballantine’s Hard Fired Whisky, Ginger Wine, Dark Chocolate Liqueur & Amontillado Sherry.
Darién
Ballantine’s Hard Fired Whisky, Buttered Rum, Pedro Ximenez Sherry & Five Spice Syrup (Served Hot).
Fifth
Ballantine’s Hard Fired Whisky, Spiced Vermouth, Raspberry Cordial, Lime, Peychaud’s Bitters. Topped with Club Soda.
