Cocktail Bar Near Me in Bethnal Green: The Sun Tavern's Poitín Room

The Sun Tavern at 441 Bethnal Green Road charges £10 for nine of the ten drinks on its house cocktail list, from the peach and oolong Teaches of Peaches to the pisco and dill pickle Slippery People. The building has held a pub since 1851, The Umbrella Project reopened it in 2014, and the back bar claims the world's largest legal collection of poitín. If you typed cocktail bar near me near Bethnal Green station, roughly 400m away, this pub pours until 2am from Thursday to Saturday.

The Sun Inn was built in 1851, and We Heart's 2015 profile describes it as a former haunt of Bethnal Green's boxing crowd. The current incarnation belongs to The Umbrella Project, a collective founded in 2013 by three friends, whose first bar, Discount Suit Company, opened in Whitechapel in January 2014. Restaurant Online reported the Sun Tavern's opening, as the team's second bar, in the week of 3 October 2014.

That renovation peeled layers back rather than adding new ones. The original exterior tiles survived, weathered plaster still clings to the walls, and the centrepiece is a wooden bar with a copper top, lined with high stools and leather banquettes. The World's 50 Best Discovery guide calls it a cocktail bar masquerading as a boozer, with raw brick, cabinets of curios and hanging tankards, and Time Out notes the creaky wooden floors.

Nine signature cocktails on the current menu cost £10 each. Teaches of Peaches mixes Benromach Contrasts organic whisky with yuzushu, kaffir lime, peach and sparkling oolong tea. Crab Walking pairs El Dorado 3 Year rum with Camazotz Oaxacan rum, banana, passionfruit and bergamot. Soi Cowboy is the most unusual build: Dewar's 12 Year whisky, Desi Daru mango, Thai milk tea, coconut and coriander and Umbrella London ginger beer.

Irish whiskey shows up even in the sweeter drinks. Left Hook stirs Teeling Small Batch with Stillgarden O'Maro and Chambéryzette, while White Bronco blends Few bourbon and Rémy Martin VSOP cognac with macadamia, white chocolate and white miso. Skip the In Bloom sharing punch unless you are a group: at £35 it is built to serve four, so a pair does better ordering £10 drinks.

A shorter section of house classics sits underneath. The Umbrella Vesper, made with Grey Goose, Boatyard gin, Kina L'Aero and Vichy Catalan, is the cheapest cocktail on the page at £7. The Irish Coffee uses Crested 10 for £8.50, and the Belfast Coffee swaps in Bán poitín with cold brew, cream, demerara and nutmeg at the same price. Beer and Bump, any Umbrella London cider or ginger beer with a shot of Two Stacks Double Barrel, costs £8.

Poitín is the reason serious drinkers cross east London for this pub. The spirit ranges from 40 to 90% ABV, dates back as far as the 6th century and was outlawed in Ireland between 1661 and 1997. The Sun Tavern founded International Poitín Day in 2015, and it is held every 18 November. The poitín list is a separate menu, last updated in May 2026, and any bottle you fall for can be bought through the group's online shop.

The Parliament Whiskey List, updated in May 2026, runs to nine pages and covers about 200 bottles of Irish spirits, including a rare and vintage shelf called The Private Collection. Prices start low: Bushmills 10 Year Old is listed at £6 and Redbreast 12 Year Old at £6.50, while Redbreast 27 Year Old reaches £50. Poitín masterclasses take place at the group's Umbrella Workshop, with a welcome cocktail, a guided tasting of four poitíns, snacks and a final drink.

The bookings page opens with a blunt headline, It's Always Best To Book, and the form asks for date, time, party size and roughly how long you plan to stay. Replies arrive within 24 hours. The Infatuation warns that live music and the price point make it hugely popular with locals, and that drinkers spill onto the pavement at weekends, so book Fridays early in the week.

If the room is full, walk to the sister bar rather than queueing at the door. Discount Suit Company sits down a narrow staircase at 29A Wentworth Street, E1 7TB, in a former suit tailor's store room, and opens at 5pm most days and 2pm on Saturdays. Its October 2026 guest cocktail is the Yerba Derba Dill, made with yerba spirit, aquavit, Midori, dill and citrus, and DJs play Thursday to Saturday.

Expect three kinds of regular. The first is the neighbour: a March 2026 Yelp reviewer came because a family friend living in Bethnal Green calls it his local, and found it packed with a non-tourist crowd. The second is the whiskey hunter, like the reviewer who makes the trek across town for a bespoke whiskey flight. The third is the trade, since the World's 50 Best guide flatly calls it a bartender's bar.

The music is a house rule of its own. DJs play non-specific rock and roll until 2am from Thursday to Saturday, live acts take over on Saturdays and Sundays, and the bar promises sets that are never too loud and never too quiet. Whiskey Wednesdays bring a weekly brand partner with an exclusive whiskey cocktail list. Guests can also spin records, a habit dating from opening week, and Thatsup lists the pub as dog friendly.

October and November are busy on the events page. On 15 October the monthly Non-Specific night teamed up with Sick Records for a label launch, with DJs including Youth of Killing Joke playing until 2am. Next comes Samhain on Sunday 1 November, from 6pm to midnight, with an exclusive Bushmills 10 Year cocktail menu and live music from 8pm. Entry to both is free, as usual for event nights here.

For a walk before your table, head toward Columbia Road, where Brawn at 49 Columbia Road, E2 7RG, serves dinner from 6pm Monday to Saturday and lunch from 12pm Tuesday to Saturday. Further on, Boundary Street hides the Umbrella Workshop at Unit 10, Cleeve Workshops, E2 7JD, the group's tasting room and bottle shop set in restored atelier workshops built in 1895.

The address is 441 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 0AN. Bethnal Green is the nearest Underground station, and Bethnal Green Overground is also close by. The official site lists closing at midnight from Sunday to Wednesday and at 2am from Thursday to Saturday. Drinks are served at the bar and tableside, and dogs are welcome.

Food is built for sharing rather than dinner. A three cheese board of Comté, Taleggio and Crottin de Chavignol with ship biscuits and quince costs £14, the mixed board with saucisson and sourdough is £16, and a Gilda pintxo of anchovy, guindilla pepper and olive is £5. Ten taps pour beer from independent London breweries in proper pint glasses, and the wines by the glass, including an orange Mogul from the Southern Rhône, start at £8.