Pub of the Week: Loose Cannon

The finishing touches are being put to an elaborate cocktail at Loose Cannon on a recent Wednesday evening, a paper straw just fitting next to a garnish and what looks like a miniature mast and flag.

“That looks amazing,” a patron sitting at the bar says as the requisite photo is taken for Instagram.

As elaborate as the cocktails being served on it, by 8pm there are four customers sitting at the bar which has a long carved slit into which blue resin has been poured and which can light up with the use of a remote control.

Look up, down and sideways and there are more little touches here on Millennium Promenade in the Harbourside next door to Pizza Express.

Hanging from the ceilings, orange life rings; on the floor, a hand painted compass; and on one wall the name of the bar in what looks like gold paint but is in fact rust which will slowly change colour as it is further oxidised.

A handpainted compass on the floor at Loose Cannon

Before opening Loose Cannon, owner Akos Rabi worked in Hyde & Co, Her Majesty’s Secret Cocktail Club and Goldbrick House, and has been working towards the creation of his dream bar for the last two years.

Arcade Fire, Florence & The Machine and Gorillaz are among the songs on the stereo, the beats of Feel Good Inc supplemented by the cocktail shakers and clinking of glasses.

A peruse of the cocktail menu, with 12 signature drinks costing either £8.50 or £9, presents a snippet of the geopolitical situation in June 2018, with the theme set by Jeremy Corbyn dabbing in a crumpled suit on the first page.

Donald Trump is brandishing an arsenal of missiles on the page for the American Dream cocktail: strawberry Monkey Shoulder whisky, Briottet fraise, peanut cream, chocolate bitters and egg whites.

Order a P45 – illustrated in the menu by Alan Sugar with devil horns and dripping fangs – and get a postage stamp-sized P45 printed on rice paper from a 3D printer.

A Brexit Mary – with photos of May, Johnson and Farage – is Loose Cannon’s take on the Bloody Mary, featuring Black Cow vodka, Marmite, mustard, tomato juice and lemon juice.

Barrel of Laughs is one of the cocktails on the menu at Loose Cannon

It’s not all politics though. One cocktail is based around a unicorn and another, the Barrel of Laughs, is served in a miniature wooden barrel and tastes like a tropical liquid sugar rush, with Montelobos mezcal, Appleton Signature rum, roasted pineapple liqueur, blood orange and grapefruit, and sherbet.

Keeping it local, a bottle of Gin 77 from Bristol Distilling Co. sits on the well-stocked back bar, with cans of Orchard Pig cider in the fridge. Currently on draught is the Midway IPA from Goose Island, with Old Blue Last made in collaboration with Vice magazine promising to be on tap soon.

As more cocktails are ordered, more bowls of popcorn appear to accompany them as Bristol’s newest cocktail bar gets ready for the long nights ahead.

Loose Cannon, 8 Millennium Promenade, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5SZ

@loosecannon_bristol