The old fashioned is my favourite cocktail. It is Panos's favourite too. We agree on very little when it comes to what should go on the Nectar menu, which is why the drinks programme is as good as it is, but on this we have always been aligned. The old fashioned is the drink that, when everything else has been considered and ordered and discussed, is the one we both end up coming back to. Which makes it slightly embarrassing that it took us a year to put one on the menu. Not

One of the first guests to try the Bees Essence described it in a way that has stayed with me. They said they had never had a cocktail that keeps going the way this one does. First there is whisky. Then there is sweetness. Then there is spice. And as the spice fades, the other flavours come back. Not a diminishing experience but a circular one, each element returning in sequence, the drink still unfolding long after the glass is empty. That description is more accurate than a

Some cocktails are created purely for flavour. Others are created because a conversation at the bar raises a question that refuses to go away. Mountain Chalet began with a question about garnish. Not a complicated question, but the kind that, once asked, changes how you think about every drink you build afterwards. The Visit That Started It Shortly after Nectar opened, Panos and I went to visit Panda and Sons on Queen Street. If you are not familiar with Panda and Sons, they