Mr Lyan aka Ryan Chetiyawardana is London’s leading mixologist.
A scientist with a snappy dress sense and a fresh approach to cocktails, over the years he’s built up bars only to tear them down at their height, like some boozy oligarch. Before Lyaness there was White Lyan, Super Lyan and Dandelyan, the latter of which was declared the ‘World’s Best Bar’ mere months before Chetiyawardana closed it to open Lyaness in the same location.
A Thames-facing spot within design-forward hotel Sea Containers London, the powder-blue room is lush and cosy, with a deep green serpentinite bar and windows looking directly out onto the river.
Expect a blend of ‘fun, clarity and deliciousness’ – their words – from the cocktail list, which features ingredients that run the gamut from intriguing to downright challenging, though always outrageously tasty.
Themed around collaboration in all its various forms, the most recent edition of the yearly-changing drinks menu incorporates such barmy concoctions as a ‘brainless melon curaçao’, made by inoculating cantaloupe and honeydew melons with penicillium, and ‘leather soda’, created by