New Covent Garden Bar cato Brings New York Soul and British Craft to Seven Dials

This January, Seven Dials welcomes cato, a new Covent Garden bar where New York City soul meets British produce and forward-thinking cocktails. Inspired by historic American drinking culture, the space balances heritage with a distinctly modern London sensibility, positioning cato as one of the capital’s most exciting openings of early 2026.

Drawing inspiration from Cato Alexander, widely regarded as the world’s first celebrity bartender, cato is created by hospitality group Bart & Taylor in partnership with award winning bartender and author Angelos Bafas. Known for his stripped back, ingredient led approach, Bafas brings a produce first philosophy to a venue that unfolds across three distinct spaces, each offering a different expression of the cato experience.

On the ground floor, The House of Julep will act as a lively and welcoming entry point. Centred around the julep, the cocktail Cato Alexander helped popularise in the 1800s, the space celebrates freshness and simplicity. Frosted cups will feature mint and herbs grown on site through cato’s in house growing system, supporting the bar’s ambition to become the first self-sufficient bar for herbs and fruits. Additional ingredients will be sourced from urban allotments and family run farms.

In the basement, guests will find a more intimate setting built around cato’s main cocktail menu, Colour Has Flavour. Inspired by synesthesia, where senses overlap and inform one another, the menu explores how colour shapes flavour, aroma and texture. Fourteen cocktails span seven hues, each named after its two defining ingredients and crafted using exclusively British spirits and produce, celebrating the diversity of UK terroir through a global lens.

Signature serves include BROWN (Medlar + Mushroom), combining Scotch whiskies with foraged medlar, mushroom spirit, brown vermouth and smoked Cornish tea, alongside GREEN (Jalapeño + Shiso), blending pod pea vodka with Norfolk shiso, South Devon jalapeño liqueur and gooseberry brine. YELLOW (Chamomile + Sweet Clover), available in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions, layers chamomile spirit with foraged sweet clover and dried meadowsweet.

Completing the venue, cato’s Study will operate as a creative laboratory, hosting masterclasses, pop ups and experimental serves around a communal table. Food will focus on elevated American classics, including fried oysters, indulgent burgers and toasties, offering a fitting nod to the spirit of the original Cato’s Tavern.

Address: 17 Mercer Street, London WC2H 9QJ

For more information, click here.

Written by Enytha Peer    

Photography courtesy of Cato