Team behind Mahiki and Whisky Mist to open Mexican cocktail bar on Sloane Square
The team behind London nightclubs Mahiki and Whisky Mist are to launch a Mexican-inspired cocktail bar in Chelsea this autumn.
Guy Pelly and Marc Burton will open Tonteria - "meaning something of little consequence" - on Sloane Square in October.
Housed in a basement site, the 200-cover venue will serve a selection of Mexican-inspired cocktails and small plates alongside an extensive range of tequila.
Early evening drinks will be served from a drinks trolley while a number of sharing cocktails, will be presented in vessels shaped like the skulls used in the Mexican day of the dead celebrations or the masks of traditional Mexican lucha libre wrestlers.
Interiors will be designed by D2 London, featuring hand-painted Mexican tiles, colourful chairs, booths and hammocks. There will also be a shot train serving shots of tequilas to tables, piñatas and a photo booth.
Pelly said: "I don't like places that take themselves too seriously."
Pelly set up his first nightclub, Mahiki, in 2005 with partners Nick House and Piers Adam and has since helped to run Park Lane members' club Whisky Mist and Guy Ritchie's pub the Punch Bowl. He opened his first solo venture, Chelsea nightclub Public, in 2010 and expanded internationally with Public Verbier in December 2011.
Burton meanwhile was marketing director at Mahiki before founding Whisky Mist. In 2011, he opened a second Whisky Mist in Beirut.
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By Kerstin Kühn
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