Pub food and gin celebration

Modeling your restaurant after a public space can be risky, what with the...hey, stop breakdancing in my soup! For a restaurant inspired by the blissfully-free-of-awkwardly-motionless-Statue-of-Liberty-people public spaces of London, hit Whitehall.

Officially making the Highlands/Mary Queen of Scots duo a triumvirate, WH shifts their theme a bit South, being named for a British road and copping the aesthetics of London's "green gardens and train stations", resulting in an unfussy pub whose cozy, brick-laden dining room is fronted by a bar sporting white Tube tiles, polished cement floors, and walls lined with park benches, which is a total trip.

In addition to biodynamic wines and British brews, the numbered cocktail program keeps up with the crisp bar vibe with a center mass of classic gin cocktails, but adding some color are contemporary concoctions like the No. 7 (Flor de Cana/allspice dram/Carpano Antica/nutmeg), and the No.1, w/ vodka (house-infused with orange pekoe tea), lemon juice, and orange marmalade, leaving everyone around you totally jellous.

Pulling from Brit culinary traditions both classic and modern, wet whistles can be plied with seasonal bites of pressed duck terrine w/ cracklings & malt vinegar, smoked-bacon-and-chive-topped baked Oysters Kilpatrick, roasted squid w/ spicy pork sausage, and, aided by Gentleman's Relish and mint, a lamb chop done Barnsley Style, which, if their F.C. is any indication, means it was super easy to slaughter.

And to be certain your belly is busted, sweets like Apple Charlotte w/ hard cider ice cream & chocolate fondant are on hand to give expats a "home away from home", a good thing, as telling them to Beat It might cause some street performer to spontaneously breakdance in their soup.