The Embassy Bar has created an oasis of effortless cool, writes Mark Blunden

Co-owner Adam Hill with barmaid Stephanie O’Rourke and below, Stephanie mixing cocktails

A TRANSFORMATION has taken place over the past year at the Embassy Bar, in Essex Road, Islington.
Under the meticulous and loving guidance of new owners, business partners Frank Lambe and Adam Hill, a cool but tatty-round-the-edges look has been replaced by a bohemian and opulent – yet still scorchingly cool – feel.
The pair’s Islington pedigree is assured too – they have notched up years of experience managing respectively Upper Street’s Medicine Bar and the Alwyne Castle, in St Paul’s Road, Canonbury.
Split between two floors, upstairs is a picture of Victorian indulgence – colours of black and red with studded butterfly arm chairs, period flock wallpaper and the like. Downstairs meanwhile is more contemporary using natural stripped woods, brown leather sofas and subdued lighting.
Mr Hill said: “We made some sweeping changing such as the chandeliers and giving the place a touch of intimacy – really, it was all about giving lots of TLC. The design in here was good and we built on that and added more greenery too, lots of exotic plants.”
Cocktails are popular at the Embassy, especially their daily two-for-one offer. As well as the usual mojitos and cosmos, bar specials such as the innocuous-sounding – yet lethal – millennium (vodka, Red Bull and Champagne) make an appearance on the menu.
Being tucked away from the hullabaloo of Upper Street, the Embassy offers a more intimate and peaceful – but by no means sedate – night out.
Mr Lambe said: “Our clientele is eclectic and we get so many repeat customers, really nice people who just keep coming back. It’s not your normal high street bar, which is a benefit because we’re away from all the flash points.”
Music, of course, is the lifeblood of the Embassy with a fusion of funk, soul, jazz and deep house all making appearances.
Indeed, records adorn the top of the bar – hundreds of them stuck around the rails, courtesy of Haggle Vinyl across the road.
Open until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, there’s a host of special nights on too. These include the ‘Botox Clinic’ (it’s booze in the syringes, though, not ‘celeb cement’) and Let’s Get Lost on the last Sunday of each month, a kicked back evening of vintage vinyl and live singers.
Messers Lambe and Hill have to be careful not to get too carried away with their baby. Mr Lambe concedes: “We eat, drink and sleep this bar but sometimes have to take a step back so we don’t get too involved. But all the work has paid off bigtime and people always comment.”
So, is the Embassy bar one of Islington’s hippest and hottest night spots? Definitely. “But,” says Mr Lambe, “You’re never so cool that you can’t make an effort and we’re not quite finished with the place yet.”
One hopes the ghosts of the Old Thatched House, on the site before the Embassy, would approve of the work carried out on the bar.
Legend has it that during the Blitz, a bomb fell through three stories and killed a luckless darts player at the oche.

• The Embassy Bar
119 Essex Road
020 7226 7901