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Although doing things the old-fashioned way isn't always best, ("I've got to kill my own mammoth, and you don't take credit cards?"), The Lucky Pig proves that it frequently is. Opening tomorrow in Fitzrovia, the Art Nouveau drink den is filled with alcoved private booths, a long brass & marble bar, and mismatched antique furnishings like gramophones, velvet armchairs, and an upright piano -- all for sale, so you don't have to conduct the usual barroom transaction of breaking your purchase first.

Cocktails kick off with a comprehensive list of straight-up classics, then jump to "experimental" numbers like the In-Fashion, made with apple- & blackberry-infused Woodford, and a decadent marriage of Hennessy XO & Grand Marnier Centenaire called the Pimp My Side Car (as if sidecars weren't already doing the pimping!).

Other liver-plunderers include the hard-boiled-American-style Boilermaker (Sierra Nevada sided by a shot of "bootlegged" whiskey), the outrageous vodka/pearl dust/Champagne "Love Potion", and the double-serving Cuba Cuba, whose three rums & flaming passion fruit will leave you feeling embargoed, and unable to trade your Love Potion.

They've also shrunk a few of their signatures as "mini cocktails" to greet you on arrival, while nourishings will come from an equally scaled-down canape menu -- light bites that might not be old-fashioned, but should prevent you from conducting your usual barroom transaction of refunding them your food.

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Anything that makes its own bacon is a LuckyPig.co.uk