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Jason Atherton launches world's first augmented reality cocktail menu

Restaurateur Jason Atherton is launching the world's first augmented reality cocktail menu 24 stories up at the bar of his Michelin-starred London restaurant, City Social, later this year.

While the drinks themselves are real enough, how they look is changed completely by an app Atherton's team have spent 18 months building, which works a little like Pokémon Go for cocktails.

Bar goers are asked to download the app, called Mirage, which sees drinks using phone's camera and then fills the customer's screen with colourful displays and illusions, from a big band in concert to a pair of battleships firing cannons at each other.

Other themes include a take on Picasso’s painting Wheatfields With Crows and a riff on Pop Art. Each animation is meant to reflect the drink's theme and flavours, and can be snapped to be shared on social media.

Available for both Android and iPhone, it works by reading the mat drinks are served on like a QR code.

Speaking at an exclusive preview of the menu, Bar Executive for Atherton’s Social Company, Jamie Jones, told the Standard he was glad his "crazy idea" was finally coming to fruition as he wanted to emulate the grand, theatrical and social media friendly serves from bars like The Artesian, "which are just not practical in a restaurant". He worked on the idea with City Social bar manager Tim Laferla, and the company's tech team.

Jones cited the example of new drink, the Dogstone Brew, a mix of gin, bergamot, black tea split milk and port, which is served simply in a glass coffee cup but is transformed with the app into a Monthy Python-esque circus, which “could never look like this in real life”.

Atherton said: "We're so excited to reveal MIRAGE, our Augmented Reality cocktail menu, it's been a long time in the making so it is fantastic to see it in action. Jamie and I want our drinks to be amongst the world's best and we hope this will really put us on the map. We are treating our approach to drinks across the group as seriously as we do our food to ensure quality and creativity shine through."

Speaking at the launch, the chef added that he hoped the new menu would be launched by mid-June.