Ninetyeight Bar / Gallery Extreme

You walk into 98 Curtain Road and immediately feel like you've stumbled into someone's seriously well-curated living room, except the living room serves proper cocktails. The space manages that rare trick of feeling both gallery and bar without either thing suffocating the other—art on the walls, craft behind the counter. It's in the heart of Shoreditch, where this sort of thing could easily tip into self-parody, but Ninetyeight keeps things grounded. The crowd here actually talks to each other rather than performing for Instagram, and the bartenders know their stuff without being evangelical about it. Whether you're after a classic Negroni or something more experimental, they won't judge you either way.