New bar Forge brings old-school opulence back to the City

When Abacus shut down earlier this year there was widespread panic that the legendary Thursday night venue would be lost forever. You needn’t have worried.

There’s a new bar on the Cornhill block and it’s bringing back the briefly forgotten art of city excesses, and it’s doing it in style. On a Thursday night, it’s buzzing with the no holds barred, old school, ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ come good escapism of the city. There are strong, moreish cocktails, impressive starters and an incredible atmosphere thanks to the London Essentials (the legendary troubadours who had a residency there over the summer).

But the real star of the show here is the steak, the mouth-watering cuts of meat come straight from ‘the pit’, an open-fronted kitchen that means you can watch them take you cut straight off the bone – it’s indulgent. Excessive, expensive, excellent indulgence, plated up and served in the form of a 20oz Tomahawk steak.

It’s a more grown-up venue than Abacus, serving ice cold craft beers, seriously well-considered whisky cocktails and proper food to a ravenous playground of the Square Mile’s brightest and best-looking. Downstairs in the club there are private booths for discreet after-work drinks and larger, more luxurious tables overlooking the dance floor for post-deal celebrations. That the tables have industrial brass taps for sharing out your bottles says it all.

This is a serious arrival to the city scene, it’s not for the faint-hearted and not for those who like a quiet night in. It won’t only be Abacus’s old regulars flocking back for more, but big hitters looking for something more serious who know the difference between a Thursday night bar and somewhere worth spending their time, and their money.