Electric Social opened with only the slightest of fuss and fanfare late last year. Pretty much just when Electric Brixton opened down the road, in fact. As the owners of both venues are no doubt bored of reiterating, they are not linked in any way.
With that established, the next task is to work out exactly what Electric Social is. On paper, its status as a one-fits-all joint merging bar, pub, restaurant and club is painful to comprehend. It’s to the credit of the maverick who thought it up that once inside this confused conceptual headache becomes cannily hedonistic.
The comfy surrounds play their part in this transformation, with a variety of sink-in sofas, prop-up bar stools and practical tables designed to fit just about any mood or purpose. A ‘library’, WiFi and plenty of plug sockets gives it something of an upgraded common room feel. This is a place you can spend all day, and perhaps even manage to fit in a bit of work along the way. If my common room had ever decided to serve cocktails along the lines of the Brooklyn which is made here with bourbon, vermouth, bitters and a slug of maraschino liqueur, then I’d certainly have spent a lot more time in it, though how much work would have got done is another matter.
