Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry, author, historian and owner of Latitude 29 at Bienville House Hotel in New Orleans.
‘Grupo Habita, without even knowing it, invented the pool rooftop bar in 2000. Before the Standard, Downtown LA, Soho House New York or Fasano in Rio, we had discovered a new way of drinking. It all started in Mexico City – a bar on the roof next to a pool and a great party scene. Not only did the bar at Hotel Habita, with its huge projection screen on the wall of the building across the street, change the way we partied in Mexico City, but it also inspired other hotel groups to change the way they designed and conceived nightlife. Bars went from dark and underground to outdoors, on top of buildings and around a pool. The trend has not stopped since. For us, it takes four ingredients to make a great bar: unique lighting, inventive drinks, good music and a sexy crowd. Its success has little to do with design. Our hotels are known for their great energy. We reinvent ourselves every time.’
Carlos Couturier, managing partner at the Mexico City-based boutique hotel developer and operator, Grupo Habita.
‘There is a sense of anonymity at a hotel bar. Even if you’re somewhat of a regular travelling through a few times a year, it’s certainly not your neighbourhood bar. You are who you say you are. You drink slightly differently. You’re not afraid to order your favourite classic, yet off-the-beaten-path cocktail. You have confidence in your bartender. Surprisingly, having been of service to famous entertainers and politicians for many years, it’s my experiences with guests whose families had history connected to Waldorf Astoria New York that stay with me the most – the more personal stories: someone whose grandparents met at the clock in the lobby on a blind date; a married couple who met by chance at a charity ballroom event; a now-successful businessman whose initial meetings were held in the lobby because he had not yet been able to afford an office; none of these events could have happened at many other locales.’
Frank Caiafa, author and beverage director at The Stayton Room inside Lexington Hotel, Autograph Collection, in New York, and former bar manager of Peacock Alley and La Chine at Waldorf Astoria New York.
‘I believe that Bemelmans thrived not solely because of the success of the cocktail programme, but because internally the interpersonal energy within the room had grown into a very supportive, positive one. I believe that real hospitality begins at home, with the very people that you work alongside every day. It was my first time working with a union, which in Manhattan dictated the type of service that was provided to guests. Bemelmans was staffed with older gentlemen who had all been working there together for many years; two of them for over 50 years, one having served President Truman. It is the depth of concern and care that you show to the people you work with that I believe has allowed my teams to thrive and become successes in their own right over the years. I took care of those gents as if they were my own flesh and blood. I gave them honesty, trust and humanity, and in turn they did exactly the same for me.’
Audrey Saunders, owner of New York’s former Pegu Club and former beverage director at Bemelmans Bar.
unique lighting
...
inventive drinks
...
good music
...
a sexy crowd
No. 12
Passion Royale
BEMELMANS BAR AT THE CARLYLE, NEW YORK, USA
INGREDIENTS
90 ml (3 fl oz) X-Rated Fusion Liqueur
Canard-Duchêne Champagne, to top up
¼ lime, for squeezing
METHOD
Fill a chilled Martini glass with a handful of crushed ice and pour in the passion fruit vodka. Add a splash of Canard-Duchêne Champagne and squeeze in the lime, leaving the squeezed lime in the cocktail to garnish.
Ludwig Bemelmans is undoubtedly best known for Madeline, the darling children’s book series he launched in 1939, starring a fearless little red-headed protagonist. The Austrian-born author and illustrator was also quite a talented painter – in exchange for lodging, in the mid-1940s he was commissioned to cover the walls of The Carlyle hotel’s new bar in playful murals. The hotel opened in 1931 and Bemelmans’ balloon- and striped-umbrella-strewn paintings evoke a charmed Central Park, weaving together vignettes such as a tie-donning rabbit smoking a cigar, while providing a light-hearted juxtaposition to such Art-Deco accoutrements as the black glass and gold leaf ceiling.
Bemelmans Bar, as it was fittingly named, was unveiled in 1947. It is the only place where it’s still possible for the public to take a gander at the artist’s work. It’s also one of the few joints where the Upper East Side feels gloriously frozen in time, with ‘Vespers’, ‘Luxury Sidecars’ and ‘Whiskey Smashes’ ordered over and over again by the loyal locals who, after a night of cabaret at the hotel’s Café Carlyle, sink into one of the leather banquettes for a last piano-accentuated hurrah.
No. 13
Macadamia Nut Sour
BACCHUS PIANO LOUNGE AT WEDGEWOOD HOTEL & SPA, VANCOUVER
INGREDIENTS
40 ml (1¼ fl oz) macadamia nut liqueur
25 ml (¾ fl oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice
15 ml (½ fl oz) simple syrup
1 egg white
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 Guinette cherry, to garnish
METHOD
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and dry shake, then add ice to the shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks glass and garnish with a Guinette cherry.
It was 1984 when the late Eleni Skalbania, a native of Greece, opened the Wedgewood Hotel & Spa in downtown Vancouver. Here, across from the Vancouver
