Tom Collins

Perfect for hot summer afternoons, Tom Collins is probably the most well known of the Collins family of drinks, a Collins being a sour cocktail, that is, a spirit mixed with sugar and citrus, that has been topped up with soda water. Basically a Tom Collins is alcoholic lemonade for grown-ups. Lovely for a picnic or a right old punt.

Treacle

Another fine drink of Dick Bradsell’s devising. When he used to make a Treacle in the Colony Room Club, he used cheap pasteurised apple juice, in a carton, from the Somerfield supermarket, in Berwick Street.

Vesper

75 ml Gordon’s gin 25 ml Polish vodka 12 ml Lillet Blanc (Kina Lillet is no longer manufactured) Shake with ice. Sieve into coupe glass. Dress with lemon peel. The Vesper was Ian Fleming’s creation. Bond is on the lash again. “Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of …

Vodka Fried Chicken

Is your fried chicken a bit soggy? Is it not even as crisp as Kentucky Fried Budgie? J. Kenji López-Alt, food scientist at Serious Eats, has done some serious research and his solution: Vodka! Isn’t it always?

Vodka Sandwich

This came to me via certain reprobate, though eminently professional, staff at a particular Soho hostelry of my acquaintance. It is, allegedly, popular, towards the end of the night amongst bartenders, as a pick-me-up to help make it through the last hour. I reckon that would do the trick.

Welsh Rarebit IPA

A British staple for at least three hundred years, also know as Welsh Rabbit, so called to avoid any confusion with a real bunny, it contains no meat of any kind although Worcestershire sauce, an essential ingredient, does contain a touch of anchovy.

Wetherspoons

Wetherspoon is not the largest pub chain in the UK, that goes to the Stonegate Pub Company, with almost 5,000, but it is certainly the most visible. To its detractors, Spoons are down market scruff houses for pensioners, benefit scroungers and general riff-raff, which sell cheap beer to the poor and needy. The regulars agree; that’s why we go there.