Sancho Leaf Martini
(Picture: Caitlin Isola)The first images of Seed Library, Ryan Chetiyawardana’s first bar in three years, have been released.
The new drinking den is slated for a March opening, and will sit in the basement of One Hundred Shoreditch, the hotel taking over the Ace Hotel site.
Marking a move back to east London — sometimes known as Mr Lyan, Chetiyawardana first made his name in Hoxton with White Lyan — Seed Library looks set to break somewhat with Chetiyawardana’s typically progressive style. At White Lyan, he managed to make a success of a bar with no ice, no fruit and no branded spirits. At Lyaness, his award-winning bar on the South Bank, the menus change often and offer high-concept drinks unlike those almost everywhere else in the world. Such innovation is partly why he is sometimes dubbed “the best bartender in the world”.
Seed Library, however, is promising “a lo-fi, analogue approach to bartending.” While at Lyaness, drinks are built deliberately around flavours rather than cocktail types, the Shoreditch opening will come with a menu inspired by classic drinks. These include a sancho leaf martini, where a szechuan leaf is used in place of a lemon twist or an olive; a gin n’ tonic served as a lowball instead of as a classic highball and garnished with perilla seed in lieu of a citrus wedge; and a riff on a Stone Fence, a somewhat obscure but reputedly 250-year-old mix of bourbon and cider. Chetiyawardana’s take will instead use white rum, perry, and a curry leaf. A menu of low-intervention wines and craft beers will also be offered.
From the photos, the bar looks to have a similarly lo-fi design, mixing bare breeze blocks with all the furniture in dark, jazz-club reds and oranges, with the bar’s team saying they hope for a “relaxed, neighbourhood feel”. Walk-ins will be encouraged, though bookings will be taken, with the bar open from Wednesdays to Sundays in the evening only, from 5pm to 1am.
Chetiyawardana said of the announcement: “Seed Library marks our return to East London — which has been home to the Lyan team since the brand’s inception a decade ago.
“The project is really exciting for us too as it provides the opportunity to explore a totally different facet of our philosophy — giving a creative route for the team and I to really challenge ourselves and the Western approach to bartending, and to create a bar that is very much reflective of the spaces where we’d want to hang out!”
