Image: Missy Flynn
Image: Photographer: Tess Lister
Food and Hosting
How to make the perfect Olive Oil Cocktail with Missy Flynn of Rita's
24.12.2025
Spend a few minutes with Missy Flynn of Rita’s, the Soho restaurant known for its intimate rooms, assured cooking and quietly electric atmosphere.
Set inside a centuries-old townhouse, Rita’s is built on intimacy, warmth and a deep understanding of how food, drink and atmosphere work together. Missy shares the early influences that shaped her approach to hospitality, the rituals that define a night at Rita’s, and the flavour cues behind a lightly spiced olive-oil cocktail made for the season.
Interview with Missy
Rita’s has such a cult following. What do you think people fall in love with most when they walk through the door?
I think the building itself offers a huge amount of charm. It’s a unique space to walk into, a grade 2 listed house in the heart of London, Built in 1716, it’s full of character and feels so different to a lot of Central London now. Aside from that, our team is welcoming, the place smells good and it’s very intimate, so you feel (hopefully) like you’ll be well looked after and that puts you at ease.
Your food & drinks have a real sense of personality. What early memory shaped the way you think about flavour, mood and hospitality behind the bar?
I think the early days of growing up in pubs meant I understood the comfort of going out for food and drink to be just as much about place, service and a feeling of community as well as tasting good. Hospitality looks very different in a pub compared to say a fine dining restaurant but it should make you feel the same.
You’re creating a cocktail with Ovette olive oil for us. What excited you about using olive oil in a drink, and how did you land on the flavour profile?
Oil in a cocktail can add a lovely richness and body, particularly in a sour where it creates a lovely silky texture and mouthfeel. I wanted to play on the savoury element and play with the spice that is already present in the oil, along with the green notes too.
Tell us about the cocktail you’ve made. What story does it tell about Rita’s, or about you?
At Rita’s we draw on a lot of European seasonal ingredients but our food is accented by touches from the America’s. This is most evident in our use of spices and seasoning and I think a little heat is very Rita’s. This lightly spiced sour also suits the season.
What’s your favourite moment of the night at Rita’s? The little window when the room feels exactly right.
My favourite moment is is actually just before we open, we have a briefing every day before service and burn incense, We usually warm the playlist up with something jazzy and everyone is ready to welcome the first guests.
When you’re off-duty, what’s the food or drink you make yourself at home , the quiet ritual nobody sees?
I don’t drink coffee anymore because it harshes my mellow, so tea is my quiet time. Early in the morning I’ll start with a pot of loose leaf green and in the evening I have so many concoctions on rotation. At the moment it’s this traditional chinese blend : wolf berry and chrysanthemum that my friend Catherine gifted me
Christmas at Rita’s, or at home , what does it look like for you? Is there a ritual, dish, or drink that instantly makes it feel like the holidays?
At Rita’s it’s when we start to put things on the board like devils on horseback, langostine, and things like truffle. At home it’s the mince pies and a little plate of cheese at any opportune moment.
BLACK PEPPER AND PLUM SOUR WITH OVETTE
BLACK PEPPER AND PLUM SOUR WITH OVETTE
Ingredients:
- 10g of high quality black peppercorns
- Infuse into a 700ml bottle of organic vodka overnight and strain out
- 35ml peppercorn vodka
- 15ml Plum eau de vie
- 10ml honey
- 20 ml Ovette olive oil
- a few drops of your favourite cocktail foamer, or you can use 10ml egg white / aguafaba
Method:
Step one: Shake all of the above with ice firmly so encourage aeration and foam
Step two: Pour into your favourite martini or sours glass
Step three: I garnished mine with a perilla salt (Yukari) from a local Japanese food store
Quickfire
What’s the first drink you ever mastered?
Margarita - a simple sum of its parts, all need to be best quality and perfectly measured. A lesson in balance
Your go-to snack at the bar between services?
Slices of Dusty Knuckle linseed baguette, whipped butter and an anchovy
A Rita’s dish you can never retire from the menu?
Our devilled eggs, they have been with us since 2012
The ingredient you’re obsessed with right now?
All citrus, it’s the best at this time of year, in drinks, dressings, sliced into salads. We get ours from Todoli via Shrub
A song that instantly feels like Rita’s?
36 Mafia instrumental that I snuck on the playlist. Very IYKYK
