Xenia Taliotis sees all of London from one barstool.
If ever there was a drink that oozes glamour, it's the cocktail. If ever there was a bar that oozes glamour, it's the Savoy's American Bar. And if ever there was a person who oozes glamour, it's, er, not me, yet here I am, swanking it up for the night, drinking in the atmosphere ahead of diving into one of head barman Erik Lorincz's fabulous concoctions.
The American Bar, opened in 1889, is London's oldest cocktail lounge. It's a sophisticated affair that has probably seen more stars fall off their stools than it can shake an olive on a stick at. This is where Marilyn Monroe knocked back the Dom Perignon, where Frank Sinatra lined up the dry martinis, where Joan Crawford sank the whisky sours, and where the Queen Mother enjoyed 10 too many gin and Dubonnets of a morning. It's also where Ada Coleman, perhaps the most famous female bartender of all time, invented the Hanky Panky (a variation on the sweet martini with a couple of dashes of Fernet Branca) for one of England's most famous comedy actors, Charles Hawtrey, and where the legendary Joe Gilmore created the Moonwalk (grapefruit juice, orange liqueur, rose water and Champagne) in 1969 to commemorate the moon landing: it was (reputedly) the first thing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had when they returned to Earth.
The American Bar's pedigree is impeccable, but what makes this such a damn fine place to hunker down for the evening is that it is as much about the present as the past. Yes you can still order all the favourite drinks of those long-dead idols, all the classics — some of which are made with vintage spirits that will set you back by anything from $175 to $8700 — but equally you can ask for one of Lorincz's own specialities. Or you can tell him what spirits you like and he'll mix the most suitable cocktail for you from the 400 or so he keeps in his head.
Lorincz is a mixologist par excellence and has the awards to prove it: he's a former Diageo Best Bartender in the World winner; he and his team currently hold the Tales of the Cocktails Best International Bar Team award, while the American Bar itself was voted best bar in Europe (second in the world) by industry experts a few months back. The awards are well deserved — the service is outstanding and the special themed cocktail menu a dazzling, theatrical and hugely entertaining ode to London that takes you on an intoxicating tour of six of the capital's boroughs, with drinks named after famous — and infamous — landmarks.
Bar manager Declan McGurk, who came up with the theme, says each of the 24 cocktails on the London Menu tells a story: "We wanted the drinks to celebrate the city, to capture the essence of a place, from world-famous sites such as St Paul's, to little-noticed nooks and crannies with obscure and interesting stories. We wanted our guests to enjoy their cocktail, but also be intrigued by the narrative behind it."
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Being a North London girl through and through, I flick to the Camden and Islington pages and pick my first cocktail, a finely nuanced little number called the Old Terraced House. Named after the oldest surviving terraced houses in the capital, it's a potent mix of Jack Daniel's, creme de cassis, Lagavulin whisky, Savoy grenadine and absinthe that delivers layers of smoke, a delicate sweetness and a long finish.
From there, I hop across to Hackney for a City Lights — a Grey Goose vodka, cocchi rosa, lemon juice and Moet & Chandon rosé tribute to one of the city's finest Victorian music halls, the Hackney Empire. It's delicious — and dangerous: I know its tangy freshness could easily get me into trouble, so I slow right down, sipping and savouring each mouthful.
Even so, I'm just about done after that one, but the American Bar's super staff suggest we try miniature versions of Pickering Place, a double cocktail combo that gets its name from the last place in London where a duel took place. The two drinks — The Elegant and the Bold — arrive on a block that opens to reveal an iPad screening a silent film that shows McGurk and Lorencz challenging each other to a duel over Sinatra's favourite tipple. It's a fitting end to our evening — as quirky and idiosyncratic, mischievous and provocative as London itself.
London through the cocktail glass
17B Kingsland Rd, Shoreditch
A holding cell might be a bad place to end a night in London, but it can be an excellent place to start one. This old police station turned bar is a Kingsland Rd favourite. TT Liquor is described lovingly as "if the Tardis was a bar" — there's a lot more room on the inside than the shopfront would suggest. The well-stocked bar is decked out from floor to ceiling with polished walnut drinks cabinets, and doorways lead to a warren of holding cells, tables and private rooms. Equally well stocked is the cocktail menu. The Groglet is a novel take on the gin gimlet while the Rosetta is a short, floral margarita. TT Liquor have avoided the trap of "jailhouse" gimmicks and polished the trappings into a bar to savour.
City Garden Bar
20 Fenchurch St, The City
Lush, green foliage, tropical aromas and panoramic glass — and that's just the cocktails. The City Garden bar sits atop No 20 Fenchurch St's viewing deck — known as the Sky Garden for its greenhouse-like environment and unrivalled views from the edge of the City's square mile. In a skyline of buildings named after abstract resemblance to "gherkins", "cheese graters" and "walkie-talkies" the Sky Garden is refreshingly literal — a garden suspended 160 metres up. Drinks are suitably botanical. Seasonal specials include Winter Roots with roots mastic infused vodka or Truffle Hunting with homemade honey-truffle syrup.
The Blind Pig
58 Poland St, Soho
Under a sign reading "Optician" with a blindfolded swine doorknocker, it wouldn't be obvious to the uninitiated that inside was one of London's best cocktail bars. Fortunately the Pig is connected to the celebrated Social Eating House restaurant, so that's an easy landmark. Getting its name from the American prohibition-era slang for "drinking den" — the setting of Blind Pig is OG original gangster. The speakeasy will make you feel like one of the Corleone family — although the themed cocktail menu is more nursery rhyme than organised crime. Highlights include Pooh's Hunny Pot and the Paddington marmalade champagne cocktail.
Checklist
GETTING THERE
Return flights to London, Rome, Paris or Amsterdam, starting from $1699 in Economy Class, are available through
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DETAILS
For information on the American Bar at the Savoy, go to thesavoylondon.com.
