No. 16
Mulata Daisy
CONNAUGHT BAR AT THE CONNAUGHT, LONDON, UK
Created by Ago Perrone
INGREDIENTS
40 ml (1⅓ fl oz) Bacardi Superior rum
20 ml (⅔ fl oz) freshly squeezed lime juice
1 teaspoon caster (superfine) sugar
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
20 ml (⅔ fl oz) dark crème de cacao liqueur
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) Galliano
cacao powder, to decorate the glass
METHOD
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake. Decorate the rim of a coupe glass by dipping it into the cacao powder. Double strain the cocktail into the decorated glass.
It’s hard to resist anything served in a room designed by the late David Collins and Connaught Bar is no exception. Consider the trolley, from which a bespoke Tanqueray No 10 Martini is prepared tableside, as it roves against a background of original oak panelling enlivened by textured silver leaf and overlaid with pastel linen panels that channel Cubism. The ‘Faraway Collins’, a global-inspired take on the go-to quencher Tom Collins (Star of Bombay gin, sarsaparilla soda water, fresh yuzu juice, homemade eucalyptus-infused simple syrup), is equally exquisite.
The bar opened in 2008 with Ago Perrone at the helm and, mirroring its balanced interior design, it doesn’t shy away from the experimental, nor does it break away from the past. How could it, when The Connaught, which opened in 1897, has such a splendid one, just like its sister properties The Berkeley and Claridge’s. This Mayfair institution, at which Charles de Gaulle often lodged, telegraphs a hushed country estate; its carpeted staircase with glossy wood bannisters a highlight. Scope out the massive art collection – peppered with pieces by greats such as Louise Bourgeois and Julian Opie.
SPOTLIGHT:
SIGNIFICANT ARCHITECTURE
a rich architecture and design heritage only heightens a bar’s ambience. Visit these hotels for a memorable backdrop.
GOOD BONES
Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest, Hungary: A 1906 Art Nouveau masterpiece, originally built for the Gresham Life Assurance Company by Zsigmond Quittner and József Vágó, it retains gobs of Secessionist-style features, including Zsolnay ceramic tiles, Miksa Róth-made stained glass, wrought-iron railings and peacock gates. Admire them all before drinking a ‘Smoky Forest’ (mezcal, blood orange, pine) at KOLLÁZS.
The Merchant Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland: The old sandstone Ulster Bank building in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter is a Victorian stunner, done up in the Italianate style, with sculptures carved into its façade. Today, it’s home to the Merchant Hotel, and it’s blessed with intact friezes and Corinthian columns. In the Cocktail Bar, where classics such as the Bramble and Grasshopper get much-deserved play, an antique fireplace and Baccarat chandeliers remind visitors of the room’s 19th-century roots.
Hotel Metropole, Brussels, Belgium: Walk through the Hotel Metropole’s French Renaissance main entrance and into the column- and pillar-lined Empire-style reception hall, and the stained-glass windows and mahogany will usher you back into the 1890s. That’s when French architect Alban Chambon completed the hotel, best known for Café Metropole. Here, patrons take in the Art Nouveau decor from one of the tables while drinking an easy-to-make Black Russian with vodka and coffee liqueur. Gustave Tops, one-time bartender at the hotel, is attributed with inventing the drink in 1949, in honour of the US ambassador to Luxembourg.
Delano South Beach, Miami, US: Philippe Starck’s good-humoured chess set in the garden is what most Delano guests remember. But the zany designer’s imprint is found throughout the hotel, including the oversized pink sofa in the lobby and the Victorian pool table balanced on curved, chunky legs. Ian Schrager opened the Delano in 1995, determined to invigorate a then seamy stretch of South Beach. Schrager might no longer be involved, but after one ‘Piquant Paloma’ (Don Julio tequila blanco, Ancho Reyes, grapefruit juice, agave nectar) at the pink-tinted Rose Bar, it’s clear that the champion hotelier’s eyebrow-raising move was yet another stylish victory.
The Dewberry Charleston, South Carolina, US: As you drink your ‘Dark as Night’ (Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac, Barolo Chinato, Austrian walnut liqueur) in the Living Room at the Dewberry Charleston, you’ll expect a cigarette case to tumble out of a suit pocket and onto the ground at any given moment. The Living Room, with its books, cherry wood and radiant brass bar, truly feels tugged out of a mid-century film script – a nod to the hotel’s days as the L. Mendel Rivers Federal Building (erected in 1964).
Hilton Sydney, Australia: Downstairs at the Hilton Sydney, Marble Bar is an upbeat venue that fills with locals who want to kick back with live music and an ‘Autumn in New York’ (tequila, apple liqueur, apple, agave, citrus). If they pay careful attention, though, they’ll realise that they are also in one of the city’s most breath-taking rooms. A sea of marble and cedar, it is crowned with a plastered ceiling, which – following the dismantling of the original 1893 Italian Renaissance-style bar of the same name – was refurbished and carefully re-assembled here, piece by piece, in 1968.
No. 17
La Violetera
1912 MUSEO BAR AT THE WEST IN PALACE, MADRID, SPAIN
INGREDIENTS
50 ml (1¾ fl oz) Belvedere vodka
30 ml (1 fl oz) Monin violet syrup (crème de violette will create a silkier texture)
20 ml (⅔ fl oz) grapefruit juice (pink grapefruit juice is a lovely alternative)
15 ml (½ fl oz) Monin blueberry syrup (the bar uses 20 ml/⅔ fl oz, but it tastes brighter with less)
fresh mint leaves, to garnish
METHOD
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake. Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with crushed ice and garnish with mint leaves.
Ernest Hemingway was an avid fan of the Prado, arguably one of the world’s most notable museums, so when
