‘We love the balance between high-brow and low. The person who pays $20 a night for a bed at Freehand can exist in the bar alongside the person that lives across the street in a luxurious home and is a regular guest,’ says managing partner Orta. Managing partner Zvi adds, ‘We have something for everyone. The daily house punch goes for $8; for those looking to spend more, there are even $350 speciality bottles of Champagne. Both guests are welcome and we treat them the same.’
Madame Rambouillet’s 17th-century French salons inspired The Ramble Hotel, in Denver’s River North Art District. After guests leave their rooms with the antique Persian rugs and wideplank hickory floors, the mission is, just like Rambouillet’s intimate gatherings, to gab, learn and share within the confines of the hotel. Death & Co, the second location to follow the New York flagship by Alex Day, Dave Kaplan and Ravi DeRossi, plays a pivotal role in this exchange, with drinks such as the ‘Wabi-Sabi’ (High West Silver Western Oat whiskey, Japanese gin, white chocolate, wasabi, coconut, lemon, matcha) savoured from velvet couches.
‘We’ve always thought of Death & Co as more than the four walls of the original East Village location. To us, Death & Co is more about a perspective on cocktails and hospitality – a way of working, how we should treat our guests and our team, an aesthetic for creative but elegantly reserved offerings – and we’ve been excited to express that in other forms for years, especially within the distinctly unique energy of a hotel,’ explains Day. ‘In Denver, we’re given a chance to explore Death & Co’s voice in so many ways: your first sip of coffee in the morning, a casual afternoon low ABV cocktail, an outdoor bar in the summer, or a deeply immersive evening cocktail experience with delicious food – so many creative opportunities, but always understandable as Death & Co. In that way, I think our success at Death & Co Denver and its integration into The Ramble Hotel is tied to our strong collective vision as a team and an almost child-like excitement for the many ways we can express it.’
Luxury is subtlety; it’s more personalised than ever.
No. 4
Jamaican Manhattan
POOL BAR & GRILL AT ROCKHOUSE HOTEL & SPA, NEGRIL, JAMAICA
INGREDIENTS
60 ml (2 fl oz) Wray & Nephew Jamaican brandy
30 ml (1 fl oz) sweet vermouth
4 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 cherry, to garnish
METHOD
Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass filled with ice and stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass and garnish with a cherry.
Rockhouse embodies an island paradise, what with its plethora of stone, thatch and wood that echo the jungle landscape – furnishings for its rooms, suites and villas are made in an on-site woodworking shop. Perched on Negril’s dramatic coral cliffs, this eco-friendly boutique hotel opened in 1973, when it was a hangout for Bob Marley and Bob Dylan. In 1994, when the current Australian owner took over the property, he ensured that it wouldn’t lose any of that soul. Instead, the hotel deepened its connection to Jamaica by starting a foundation that helps local children through renovating schools and libraries.
Four-poster beds beg a lie-in, but do rise, if only for a dip in the infinity pool and meals in the three restaurants and bars, which integrate greens from the organic garden into dishes and drinks. In anticipation of sunset, hightail it to the Pool Bar & Grill and gaze upon the Caribbean in the company of a ‘Jamaican Manhattan’ or cooling ‘Jahjito’, which is made with the island’s own Appleton white rum and combines with mint leaves, lime, sugar and soda water.
No. 5
Billy the Kid
FIFTY MILS AT FOUR SEASONS HOTEL MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
INGREDIENTS
30 ml (1 fl oz) Bulleit Bourbon with Butter Fat Wash*
30 ml (1 fl oz) Zubrowka vodka
45 ml (1½ fl oz) Caramel Tea**
20 ml (⅔ fl oz) lime juice
25 ml (¾ fl oz) Saffron and Cinnamon Syrup†
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
* For the Bulleit Bourbon with Butter Fat Wash (makes 1 litre/34 fl oz):
1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) melted butter
750 ml (25 fl oz) Bulleit bourbon
** For the Caramel Tea (makes 1 litre/34 fl oz):
75 g (2½ oz) rooibos, vanilla or caramel tea
1 litre (34 fl oz) freshly boiled water
† For the Saffron and Cinnamon Syrup (makes 1 litre/34 fl oz):
100 g (3½ oz) cinnamon sticks
100 g (3½ oz) sugar
pinch of saffron
1 litre (34 fl oz) water
METHOD
For the Bulleit Bourbon, combine the ingredients, then pour into a container and freeze overnight. The following day, skim off the hardened layer of butter. Strain the bourbon into a sterilised bottle.
For the Caramel Tea, combine the ingredients and steep for 5 minutes, then strain and chill until needed.
For the Saffron and Cinnamon Syrup, combine the ingredients in a saucepan and heat for 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Strain into a sterilised bottle and chill until needed.
Combine all the ingredients in a shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously. Double strain into a mug filled with large ice cubes.
Mexico City teems with vibrant bars – secretive, polished mixology dens, no-frills cantinas devoted to knocking back ice-cold cervezas and bartender favourites such as Licorería Limantour, making it one of Latin America’s most seductive nightlife capitals.
Fifty Mils, inside the hacienda-style Four Seasons Hotel close to ‘Bosque de Chapultepec’, where guests are welcomed into a courtyard thronging with fruit trees, arrived on the scene in 2015, and was quickly recognised as one of the best places in the city to savour a cocktail. Drinks here are complex: the ‘Bugs Bunny’, for instance, melds Tanqueray 10 gin with carrot juice, lemongrass syrup, fresh cactus and Fernet perfume; in the ‘Ofrenda’, Zacapa 23 rum is paired with tamarind pulp, grilled pineapple juice and avocado-leaf bitters. Opt for a classic Manhattan and even that will come to the table with a distinctive flourish: it’s served inside a hollow ice cube that the bartender
