A dedicated Guinness saloon is heading to London inside one of the city’s oldest bars

Dublin Daily LifeYoung people toasting inside a pub with half pints of Guinness black beer (Photo by Joaquin Gomez Sastre/NurPhoto via Getty Images) — (Image credit: Joaquin Gomez Sastre Getty Images)

If there’s one thing that Netflix’s House of Guinness proved is that James Norton can really do an Irish accent. And also that Brits are just giddy for Guinness. In fact, it’s as common a sight on London streets as it is in Dublin now — you truly know you’re in the heart of the city when you walk down any Soho street and see a string of white shirt-wearing, black-stuff-drinking lads piled out on the pavement.

So all in all it’s not exactly surprising that a dedicated Guinness saloon is set to open up in Covent Garden this summer.

Swapping the rootin-tootin’ kind of saloon for a more suave sippers kind of old-time saloon bar, the spot will be setting up shop inside the new site, Mr Fogg’s Market Tavern. It was announced earlier in the year that a new opening from Mr Fogg’s would be taking over the historic wine bar inside Covent Garden Market, The Crusting Pipe. The new Mr Fogg’s spot will open up on July 20th, making it the 11th spot from the group. Unlike the more eccentric spots from the brand whose bars are styled in the eccentric manner of Jules Verne’s character from Around the World in 80 days, this spot will be designed to look more like a traditional Victorian pub.

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The venue itself is a little like a labyrinth with different rooms and corridors spanning across the space, all connected by the original brickwork arches, making it feel like you’ve time travelled back to Ye Olde England, but with better style and working toilets. One of said rooms is going to be The Guinness Saloon, an entire bar purely dedicated to serving up Guinness.

an image of five wooden barrels stacked one on the other

In a fun twist and a gimmick we can truly get behind, the recipient of every 1000th Guinness pint poured will have their smiling face hung up via picture on the wall, like a drinker’s hall of glory. As well as being immortalised in a London drinker, to sweeten the deal and coax a smile out of reluctant models, there’s a free round of drinks on offer with the accolade.

To keep track of exactly who is the lucky 1,000th pint swigger, the machine the Guinness will be poured from will count the number of drinks sold since its opening, digitally displaying the number so everyone can keep track without any need for VAR. If you happen to be the 10,000th recipient, you’ll get something even better: a full expenses paid trip to the St James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin. That certainly calls for a Guinness.

It’s certainly on brand for Mr Fogg’s whose other venues include Mr Fogg’s Pawnbrokers (our regular Shortlist Pub Corner haunt), Mr Fogg’s Hat Tavern, and Mr Fogg’s City Tavern which opened up recently in Broadgate Circle.

You can find the new Mr Fogg’s Market Tavern at The Piazza, 27 The Market, WC2E 8RD next month.

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Hermione Blandford is the Content Editor for Shortlist’s social media which means you can usually find her scrolling through Instagram and calling it work, or stopping random people in the street and accosting them with a mini mic. She has previously worked in food and drink PR for brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Gordon's, The Singleton, Lagavulin and Don Julio which means she is a self confessed expert in spicy margaritas and pints, regularly popping into the pub in the name of research.