Angelina team to launch Soho cocktail bar

Golden Gai takes its name from a district of Tokyo known for its narrow alleyways crammed with late night bars and will offer a regularly-changing menu of Italian-Japanese dishes designed with drinking in mind.

Co-owners Joshua Owens-Baigler and Amar Takhar bill their new D’Arblay Street bar as a re-imagining of the six-seater cocktail bar of the same name at Angelina​​, which social distancing has made ‘untenable’. 

Created by Owens-Baigler, the menu features an Italian cheese board with Japanese additions such as aged tofu with miso, alongside ​antipasti, ​crudo and riffs on Angelina’s signature plates, including ​chicken karaage, and ​tuna with lardo. 

The menu will also feature an indulgent take on ​piadine - Northern Italian filled and rolled flatbreads - with toppings including caviar and  truffle.

Developed by head bartender Wilson Salemos - who will be heading up the new venture - cocktails include Itameshi (Vin Santo, Montanaro Rosso, whisky and fish dashi); and Milk & Melograno (milk punch with pomegranate punch with grappa, sake and rum). 

The cocktails sit alongside an ‘imaginative, varied and accessible’ Italian wine list. 

Formerly Vetro Wine & Cocktail Bar, Golden Gai has 40 covers social distanced (65 without) and will be packed with greenery, including fig trees and hanging plants.

The venue will also feature counter tops made from marble slabs and Japanese-style polycarbonate awnings and interiors, creating 'a dimly-lit moody and intimate atmosphere for which its Japanese namesake is renowned'.

Angelina launched in early 2019 with a remit to ‘poke fun at pretension and challenge the way we eat and think about native cuisines’.