Perilla and Pollen Room team up to create wild new cocktails

Newington Green’s Perilla is teaming up with cocktail crafters Pollen Room for a two week collaboration starting today.

It will see Perilla’s Ben Marks and Matt Emmerson, who launched their first restaurant late last year following a series of pop-ups, work with Pollen Room’s Anya Montague, who most recently mixed concoctions for Dan Barber’s WastED project.

The drinks will focus on showcasing sustainability and underused ingredients, and will include the Purslane made with Napue gin from the Kyro distillery in Finland along with unfortified fino sherry, pickled sea purslane and homemade vermouth, and the Nettle which combines white nettle cordial, Dewars 12 whisky, cow parsley and citric solution.

These cocktails will each be paired with dishes from Perilla’s five-course tasting menu, which includes grilled mackerel with horseradish, and courgette with pecorino and basil.

Pollen Room co-founder and florist Emily Bayliss will also be decorating the restaurant with seasonal flowers to bring to life Anya’s creations.

Ben said: “Matt and I have always admired Anya’s work, putting together amazing concoctions both at the Pollen Room and around the world and we are excited to be working with someone that shares our passion for creating great flavours from simple ingredients.”

Visit perilladining.co.uk.