We’ve taught you how to pour the perfect power punch – now we present the original rakish cocktails and most excellent establishments in which to enjoy them…
Pleasure
The World’s Greatest Drinks And Where to Drink Them
We’ve taught you how to pour the perfect power punch – now we present the original rakish cocktails and most excellent establishments in which to enjoy them…
Words Max Olesker
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The Negroni - Bar Termini
It takes a genius or a madman to reinvent the sublime negroni. Luckily the diminutive Bar Termini in Soho has both, in the form of Tony Conigliaro (the immensely influential drinks maven behind pioneering Islington cocktail bar 69 Colebrook Row). Under Conigliaro’s stewardship, Bar Termini’s menu confidently offers four ‘house negronis’ – the traditional Classico; the Rosato, infused with dried rose petals; the Superiore, made with pink peppercorns; and the slightly stiffer Robusto - all pre-mixed and served in beautiful mini coupe glasses. “We cook the negronis sous vide (we call this flash fusing),” says Conigliaro, “this mimics the effect of ageing it for around six months.”
Bar Termini, 7 Old Compton Street, London, W1D 5JE
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The Martini - Dukes
An iconic, heavyweight drink, and arguably king of the cocktails. To experience a martini made correctly, make a pilgrimage to the DUKES Bar in St. James. Specifically, seek out the hotel’s Bar Manager Alessandro Palazzi. At his famed drinks trolley, the suave Italian creates some of the most immaculate – and potent – martinis in the world, including the Vesper, 007’s drink of choice (DUKES was, of course, Ian Fleming’s watering hole). “All you need is a freezing glass, a strong, premium spirit – gin or vodka – dry Vermouth, and a twist of Amalfi lemon,” says Palazzi. “The ingredients are very simple – the key, of course, is the execution.”
Incidentally, on the contentious subject of the martini’s preparation, novelist W. Somerset Maugham had it that the drink should only ever be stirred, “so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other."
Dukes Hotel, 35 St James's Pl, London SW1A 1NY
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The Singapore Sling - Raffles
A well-made Singapore Sling is a zesty, refreshing, joyous creation – a triumphant union of gin, cherry brandy and pineapple juice (and around eight other ingredients, depending on the recipe your bartender is following). The Long Bar at Raffles Hotel, Singapore, is the place to experience the definitive Sling – developed as it was by their bartender Ngiam Tong Boon, in around 1915. Come for a Singapore Sling, stay for the curious tradition of eating unlimited monkey nuts and flicking the shells on the floor. And then enjoy another Sling, naturally. Raffles Hotel, 1 Beach Road, Singapore 189673
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The Bellini - Harry's Bar (Venice)
Small, unassuming and slightly faded – don’t be dismayed by the quotidian appearance of Harry’s Bar. Not only is its guestbook adorned with the signatures of patrons including Noel Coward, Orson Welles and Truman Capote (whether they were sharing a table is unclear…) it is also the home of the Bellini, one of the finest cocktails known to man. Created in the 1948’s by the bar’s founder Giuseppe Cipriani, the Bellini remains an easy-drinking pleasure. The secret? “Its simplicity,” says Marco Salvadori, bartender at the Venetian institution. “White peaches and prosecco - It puts a smile on people’s faces at any time of day”. Stay for one, maybe two, and then stroll off to explore Venice – safe in the knowledge you’ve drunk a piece of history.
Harry’s Bar, Calle Vallaresso, 1323 30124 San Marco Venice, Italy
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The Sidecar - Bar Hemingway, Ritz Paris
The history of the Paris Ritz is almost impossibly opulent – Coco Chanel lived there, Cole Porter wrote there, Ernest Hemingway personally liberated the bar from the Nazis – and it is in the Ritz bar (now named in Hemingway’s honour) that one can experience the hotel’s history in a glass. The Ritz Sidecar is a take on the classic, deceptively smooth-tasting cocktail; cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice, shaken over ice. In this instance, however, the Sidecar is made with1865 Ritz Fine Champagne Cognac, an exceptional (and exceptionally rare) spirit hidden from the Nazis during the occupation. Hemingway would be proud of you.
Ritz Paris, 15 Place Vendôme, 75001 Paris
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The Bloody Mary - Harry's New York Bar (Paris)
Piquant, life-giving, endlessly versatile – the Bloody Mary stands alone as a savoury delight, and the morning-after savior of innumerable over-refreshed revelers. It was created in the 1920s in the confusingly-named Harry’s New York Bar (Harry wasn’t the original owner, and the bar is in fact in Paris – it was shipped over from New York), and each year thousands of cocktail connoisseurs (and the tired and emotional) still flock to the family-run institution for un peu de cheveux du chien.
Harry’s New York Bar, 5 rue Daunou, 75002 Paris
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The Old Fashioned - Bemelman's Bar, The Carlyle
Undoubtedly the pre-eminent whisky cocktail, and arguably the original cocktail, full stop – the first instances of the word ‘cocktail’ refer to prototypes of what we know as an Old Fashioned. Though many bars lay claim to making a good Old Fashioned, there are few places that match the old world charm of Bemelman’s Bar at the Carlyle Hotel, with its welcoming dark brown banquettes, muraled wall and gold-leaf covered ceiling. “Our Old Fashions are made in a secret way,” says Bar Manager Carlos Rivera, “and our head bartender Luis Serrano isn’t telling anyone how he does it.”
Bemelman's Bar, The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel, 35 E 76th St, New York, NY 10021
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The Mai Tai Bar - The Royal Hawaiian
“Though Trader Vic’s created the Mai Tai, we perfected it,” says Alex Nakashima, Supervisor of the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian, and tireless defender of the oft-overlooked cocktail. “We use local Hawaiian rums, fresh pineapple juice; when made properly, there’s nothing better.” The bar is further reforming the cocktail’s image by offering a host of variations – the Royal Mai Tai is their standard serve, but they also offer a Vic’s-style drink (a stiffer, simpler drink more akin to the original recipe) and a frozen Mai Tai with mint. For those struggling to choose, the bartenders offer cocktail-making demonstrations that are regular enthusiastic, and interactive.
The Mai Tai Bar, The Royal Hawaiian, 2259 Kalakaua Avenue Honolulu, HI 96815
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Buck's Fizz - Buck's Club
When the peerless P. G. Woodhouse created The Drones Club – a fictional St. James’ gentlemen’s club to which his myriad characters inevitably retired after a hard day’s whimsy – he named the bartender McGarry. This was an affectionate nod to the real McGarry, bartender at the non-fictional Buck’s Club, whose membership has included Winston Churchill, Christopher Lee and the explorer Col. John Blashford-Snell. McGarry was a man of great invention – legend has it he created the Sidecar – but he is most famous for giving the world Buck’s Fizz. Two parts champagne to one part orange juice (never half and half – that, of course, is a Mimosa), it became an instant classic. Purists argue that the only place to consume an authentic glass of Buck’s Fizz is at the Buck’s Club – where the bartenders retain McGarry’s original recipe (which, they claim, contains a number of secret ingredients…).
Buck’s Club 18 Clifford Street London W1S 3RF
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Vieux Connaught - The Connaught Bar
A stylish, elegant and profoundly alcoholic drink, the Vieux Carré was invented in New Orleans in 1938 by Walter Bergeron, head bartender at the famous Hotel Monteleone, but is today served most triumphantly in London’s beloved Connaught Hotel. The bartenders at the Connaught Bar are nigh-on incapable of making a bad drink, and their take on the classic cocktail offers French Quarter indulgence with a Mayfair twist. It’s for serious drinkers – a heavy-hitting mix of Zapaca 23 rum, rye, Benedictine and blended dry vermouths, coupled with bitters (both Angostura and orange) and, as this is the Connaught Bar, ‘saffron smoke’.
Connaught, Carlos Pl, London W1K 2AL
bar hemingway, bar termini, bars, bucks club, cocktails, Consume, dukes, global, harrys bar, hawaii, max olesker, new york, Paris, raffles, Rakish, royal hawaiian, the connaught, Travel, Venice
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