Hotel bars: Creating a Stir

It’s 4.30pm and the cosy bar in Dukes hotel – tucked away behind London’s St James’s – is starting to get busy. In front of me, head bartender Alessandro Palazzi has just finished swirling a splash of vermouth in a frozen martini glass, which he has set down on his wooden trolley, and is now free-pouring five syrupy-cold measures of Sacred gin. He finishes the drink with an inch-wide strip of organic Amalfi lemon peel, squeezing droplets of oil over the surface of the liquid to create a wonderful bitter citrus fragrance. I take my first sip, relishing the fresh, clean flavour of the dangerously potent concoction (there is a limit of two per person). Of course, any half-decent bar in the world can knock up a martini, but Dukes’ association with James Bond author (and long-term regular) Ian Fleming, who decided his character’s beverage of choice would be the martini – controversially, at the time, shaken not stirred – is one of the reasons it serves more than 300 of them every night. “The original martini was invented in the US, though there are many anecdotes,” Palazzi says – one being that it is an evolution of the “Martinez”, served in the 1860s at San Francisco’s Occidental hotel. “But it’s how you serve it that’s important – after the 1950s, the International Bartending Association created the standards by which cocktails had to be made so you would get exactly the same Manhattan in New York as you would in Hong Kong. A martini was always to be stirred, so as not to ‘bruise’ the alcohol, and was only to be drunk as an aperitif. “Then came Bond, who shakes his martini, and you can imagine what people said: ‘Mon dieu, who is this guy?’ He made his own rules. But now we live in a world where we do what we want.” From the Singapore Sling, invented in the early 1900s by Ngiam Tong Boon of the Raffles hotel in Singapore, to the Wynn Las Vegas’s US$10,000 “Ono” (Louis XIII Black Pearl cognac, freshly squeezed orange juice, apricot purée, Sence rose nectar and Charles Heidsieck 1981 champagne, served with a pair of 18-karat gold Mont Blanc cufflinks), hotel bars have long been coming up with new and inventive recipes to attract punters. As a result, some have become destinations in themselves. The King Cole bar in New York’s St Regis hotel is the birthplace of the Red Snapper – or as it is more commonly known, the Bloody Mary. Invented in 1934 by Fernand Petiot, the simple recipe remains the same as it ever was, and continues to pull people in who come especially to try the legendary hangover cure. Head barman Angel Torres says: “We usually use Belvedere or Grey Goose vodka, then add 3oz of tomato juice, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, a little bit of cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, lemon, shake it real well, strain it over ice and garnish with lemon. We try to keep it the same – nothing added, nothing taken.” Back on home soil, I try to decide on my next stop. London is spoilt when it comes to iconic hotel cocktail dens – from the Savoy’s American bar, which claims to be the oldest in England, dating back to 1893, to the art-deco Rivoli bar in the Ritz, which prides itself on its collection of rare vintage spirits and drinks such as the signature Ritz 100, made with gold-infused vodka, mandarin and peach liqueur, and champagne to celebrate its centenary. But it’s the tiny Fumoir bar at Claridge’s that I opt for. Perching on a high stool, I ask to sample one of its famous Little Marys – though I hear the Flapper (strawberry purée, crème de cassis and Laurent Perrier champagne) served in the main bar is the most popular, with up to 100 sold on a busy evening. In this opulent, windowless hideaway, you can forget the world. Oliver, the immaculately groomed bartender, agrees: “In here, midday feels like midnight, and midnight can go on until noon.” I watch him take his time crushing rose peppercorns, filling a Lalique glass with crushed ice, pouring in 40ml of Bacardi, followed by grenadine, star anise-infused maraschino liqueur, pineapple juice and lime, before shaking with an expert rhythm, until a gentleman sits down next to me and asks where I am from. Within a few minutes, I realise I am being chatted up by a 70-year-old former British spy who, apparently, speaks 83 languages, is a concert pianist and an award-winning ballroom dancer. And that, after all, is what hotel cocktail bars are all about. You never know who you are going to meet or what glorious beverage you are about to consume. ICONIC HOTEL COCKTAILS  Singapore Sling Long bar, Raffles Singapore Gin, cherry Heering, Benedictine, pineapple juice Martini Dukes bar, Dukes, London Gin, dry vermouth, Amalfi lemon peel Red Snapper (Bloody Mary) King Cole bar, St Regis New York Vodka, tomato juice, lemon juice, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, Worcestershire sauce Old Fashioned Peacock Alley bar, Waldorf Astoria, New York Bourbon, Angostura bitters, sugar cube, orange slice, brandied cherries, water Mai Tai Trader Vic’s, London Hilton on Park Lane Dark rum, gold rum, lime juice, lemon juice, Mai Tai concentrate White Lady American bar, Savoy, London Gin, Cointreau, fresh lemon juice, egg white Serendipity Hemingway bar, Ritz hotel, Paris Calvados, fresh mint, sugar, apple juice, champagne Pina Colada Beachcomber bar, Caribe Hilton, San Juan White rum, coconut cream, pineapple juice Tequila Sunrise Wright bar, Arizona Biltmore Gold tequila, orange juice, grenadine syrup Black Russian Hotel Metropole, Brussels Vodka, Kahlua