by Alia Akkam
Beautiful, Amore, Gasp
THIEF BAR AT THE THIEF, OSLO, NORWAY
Created by Felice Capasso
INGREDIENTS
30 ml (1 fl oz) Absolut Elyx vodka
15 ml (½ fl oz) Cocchi Americano vermouth
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) white crème de cacao
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice
5 ml (1 teaspoon) Salted Pedro Ximénez Syrup*
1 ice ball, to serve (you can use a silicone mould to make these)
white chocolate shard or disc**, to garnish
* For the Salted Pedro Ximénez Syrup (makes 750 ml/25 fl oz):
750 ml (25 fl oz) Pedro Ximénez Lustau sherry
350 g (12 oz) sugar
25 g (¾ oz) salt
** Former bar manager Capasso used an ornate moulded disc of white chocolate decorated with swirls of coloured chocolate to garnish this cocktail, but you can use any white chocolate of your choice.
METHOD
For the Salted Pedro Ximénez Syrup, combine the sherry and sugar in a saucepan and gently heat for 10–15 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt until fully dissolved. Chill until needed.
To make the cocktail, combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake. Strain into a coupe glass (the bar uses an Elyx copper coupette) filled with an ice ball. Serve garnished with white chocolate.
When discussing Scandinavia’s robust art and design scenes, cities like Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki tend to get the lion’s share of attention. Oslo should also be a part of that conversation. For example, The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, designed by Renzo Piano, is a champion of Norwegian and international contemporary art and is located on Tjuvholmen, a renewed island that once swarmed with bandits and ladies of the night.
Adjacent to the museum is The Thief, a hotel that debuted in 2013 with gold-accented guest rooms that take cues from Riva yachts. Amplified through floor-to-ceiling windows, the views of the canals and the Oslo Fjord are a mighty visual alone, but The Thief bolsters this natural backdrop with its own permanent artwork collection, as well as selections borrowed from its prominent neighbour and collaborator.
Thief Bar, which subtly recalls a gallery with liquor bottles, books and objects all confidently displayed inside warmly illuminated shelves, deepens the strong relationship with the arts through its menu. Cerebral cocktails, in dialogue with such works as Damien Hirst’s God Alone Knows and Beautiful, amore, gasp, eyes going into the top of the head and fluttering painting, are meant to arouse a contemplative state. It comes easily when seated in a velvety chair by the fireplace.
No. 28
Million Red Roses
LOBBY BAR AT BELMOND GRAND HOTEL EUROPE, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
INGREDIENTS
40 ml (1¼ fl oz) Russian Standard Platinum vodka
100 ml (3½ fl oz) grapefruit juice
40 ml (1¼ fl oz) honey syrup (1 part honey to 2 parts water)
100 ml (3½ fl oz) sparkling wine
aspidistra leaf and rose petals (optional), to garnish
METHOD
Combine the vodka, grapefruit juice and syrup in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled wine glass with a few ice cubes at the bottom. Add the sparkling wine and stir.
The bar fancifully garnishes this drink with aspidistra leaf and rose petals, but it’s also lovely in its unadorned state.
Past the Ludwig Fontana-designed neoclassical façade of Belmond Grand Hotel Europe, the barrage of marble and gilt carries one back to tsarist 1875, when the property opened as Grand Hotel d’Europe. Dostoevsky came around often, Tchaikovsky honeymooned here, and the enigmatic monk Rasputin, from behind drawn curtains, dined with politicians and paramours alike in an upstairs alcove at L’Europe, the restaurant that when it opened in 1905 was lit by never-before-seen-in-St-Petersburg electric bulbs.
By turns a post-Soviet Revolution orphanage and a hospital for the Leningrad front during the early-1940s siege, the hotel is once again a shimmering Art Nouveau palace, complete with a vodka sommelier and caviar brunches befitting of the antique-laden suites such as the winter garden-accentuated ‘Lidval’ and the jewel-toned ‘Fabergé’. In the Lobby Bar, restored stucco and tiled mantelpieces contrast with the bar crafted from smooth, icy alabaster marble and black granite. Spring for the ‘Anna Akhmatova’ (gin, elderflower liqueur, Lillet Blanc, dry vermouth), named for the great 20th-century Russian poet, and taste the good imperial life.
For a drier, less tart version of the Million Red Roses, then reduce the measurements to 50 ml (1¾ fl oz) of grapefruit juice and 30 ml (1 oz) of honey syrup.
SPOTLIGHT:
THE REVOLUTIONARY
the man shaking things up in London and beyond
MR LYAN!
Ryan Chetiyawardana, better known as Mr Lyan in cocktail circles, has been breaking the rules since 2013, when he opened White Lyan in London’s Hoxton neighbourhood. A daring experiment in sustainability, the bar served pre-made libations devoid of fruit and ice. A year later, he unveiled Dandelyan in the Tom Dixon-designed Mondrian London hotel – now Sea Containers London – overlooking the Thames, and the accolades quickly poured in for its ‘Modern Botany’ menus. The green marble bar is the same and boozy afternoon tea is still on offer, but Dandelyan is no more. Instead there is Lyaness, a new Mr Lyan concept, joining his London restaurant Cub and all-day bar Super Lyan inside the Kimpton De Witt Amsterdam hotel, that dissects just seven ingredients, including vegan honey and a signature tea blend. His latest venture is Silver Lyan, which is inside yet another hotel, Riggs Washington DC. Here, Mr Lyan weighs in.
On the Endurance of Hotel Bars
‘I think the best hotel bars have integrated themselves into their setting, and into the community. There is a balance that can come from these bigger projects that means they can imbed themselves into the scene in a much more open way, and that allows for the longevity.’
On Dandeylan’s Triumphs
‘We always said we wanted to challenge the model of a hotel bar. We wanted to integrate into the building, but not conform to the hotel bar model. There were lots of iconic hotel bars, particularly in London, but we wanted something to complement that, and something that felt honest to us. We took a lot of the small bar sensibilities and tried to find a way to marry them with the glamorous setting of Sea Containers hotel. We took the fact that the hotel wanted to be democratic and welcoming to all – a value mirrored in what we do – and we created something that played to this, but from the point of view of innovation and being a destination. Like with Hoxton, Southbank was a destination, and lacking many great food and drink options at the time, so we created something that felt really welcoming, but was unique to act as a draw. We described it as a “neighbourhood bar in a five-star setting”.’
On Forging a New Identity
‘It was about playing to honesty and borrowing from our background and history. White Lyan set the tone for what we have wanted to do as a business – find new, welcoming and exciting ways to help people gather – and everything has stemmed back to this. Lyaness is very much born of the things we love, and the things we want to change in the landscape of food.’
On the Difference Between Hotel Bars and Other Kinds
‘Hotel bars are much more open. They cater to every crowd and every eventuality. Independent bars can, of course, take these ideals on, but they also have the difference in being able to be more specific, niche and nuanced, so a hotel bar has a brilliant grounding in something familiar. The best will try to evolve this definition though.’
Soho House, the petite empire of hotels and private members’ clubs formed by Nick Jones in 1995, unveiled its Istanbul digs in 2015. The city’s arts-and-media types came running to this former palazzo in Beyoğlu, holing up at the Club to drink in a dramatic room covered in marble, rosewood and original frescoes. For a region where alcohol is largely verboten, Middle Eastern hot
el bars do a fine job of transporting their guests, even if it’s through an inspired mocktail that doesn’t require booze to hold interest. Further east, India has rapidly contemporised, and its bars have not been left behind. Waterlogged Maldives and Mauritius, increasingly visited for their sunny seclusion and outdoor antics, also don’t skimp on their hotel bars – as if they could be anything less than radiant when facing the Indian Ocean. Decades ago, this region was cloaked in mystery and hailed as ‘exotic’; sit in a hotel’s citrus-scented garden and you might just feel the same.
No. 29
Gilded Sultan’s Elixir Riff
LE FUMOIR AT THE ÇIRAĞAN PALACE KEMPINSKI, ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Created by Franky Marshall
INGREDIENTS
45 ml (1½ fl oz) Date-Infused VS Cognac*
15 ml (½ fl oz) Pineapple Coconut Simple Syrup**
15 ml (½ fl oz) unsweetened coconut milk
15 ml (½ fl oz) cold-brew espresso-blend coffee (Marshall uses Trader Joe’s Cold-Brew Coffee, Nitrogen-Infused with Espresso)
freshly grated coconut, to garnish
* For the Date-Infused VS Cognac (makes 750 ml/25 fl oz):
3 large dates, sliced
750 ml (25 fl oz) VS Cognac
** For the Pineapple Coconut Simple Syrup (makes 250ml/8½ fl oz):
125 ml (4 fl oz) fresh pineapple juice
225 g (8 oz) coconut sugar
METHOD
For the Date-Infused VS Cognac, add the sliced dates to a large non-reactive container and then muddle gently. Pour over the Cognac and stir. Let sit for 6–8 hours, or longer depending on desired intensity. Stir occasionally. Strain the infused Cognac into a sterilised bottle, reserving the infused dates for future use.
For the Pineapple Coconut Simple Syrup, simply mix together the pineapple juice and sugar until the sugar has completely dissolved.
To make the cocktail, combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake. Double strain into a Turkish teacup and top with grated coconut to garnish.
Thrills can come cheaply in Istanbul, absorbing street life from a Beyoğlu terrace, say, over meze platters and cloudy, liquorice-scented glasses of raki. Those with more prodigal preferences will assuredly be sated at Çırağan Palace Kempinski, where Ottoman sultans lived and frolicked in the 17th century. Attractively positioned on the banks of the Bosphorous, it has the tranquil manner of a resort. In the mornings, guests preface their Topkapı Palace jaunts with balcony breakfasts; when they return it is time for sunbed cat naps, sudsy hammam sessions and dips in the infinity pool. By evening they are ready to retreat to the palm tree garden and Le Fumoir, the bar kitted out with lanterns and a billowing fabric ceiling. Single malts and cigars will suffice for most, but those with the deepest of pockets might be curious enough to splurge on the $2,500 nightcap-ready ‘Gilded Sultan’s Elixir’: a base of rare Hennessy Richard Cognac married with coconut-infused pineapple juice, honey syrup and fig bitters, suitably garnished with a rim of edible gold dust. Compared to checking into the commodious Sultan Suite, prized by royalty, it’s a regal bargain.
The Gilded Sultan’s Elixir isn’t a cocktail made for everyday sipping, so New York bartender and educator Franky Marshall made the riff (known as the Sultan’s Pick-Me-Up) reinterpreting the extravagent beverage’s ingredients through a far more accessible lens. Enjoyed as either a nightcap or morning reviver, it balances out the sharp fruitiness of the pineapple with layers of bittersweet chocolate, coffee (a nod to Turkey’s richly caffeinated history), coconut and a ‘fruit and nut’ mix with dates that mellow out the Cognac and add silkiness to the mouth feel.
No. 30
Whiskey-A-Go-Go
LIBRARY BAR AT THE NORMAN TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
INGREDIENTS
30 ml (1 fl oz) Spiced Pomegranate Juice*
50 ml (1¾ fl oz) rye whiskey
20 ml (⅔ fl oz) lemongrass syrup
20 ml (⅔ fl oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 star anise, to garnish
*For the Spiced Pomegranate Juice (makes 1 litre/34 fl oz):
1 litre (34 fl oz) pomegranate juice
6 cloves
6 cardamom pods, crushed
8–10 pink peppercorns
METHOD
For the Spiced Pomegranate Juice, combine all the ingredients in a non-reactive container and refrigerate overnight. Strain in a sterilised container and store for up to 72 hours in the refrigerator.
To make the cocktail, combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake well. Double strain into a Martini glass and garnish with a star anise.
White City, Tel Aviv’s residential enclave of Bauhaus-style buildings, received a dose of modernity when The Norman (named for Norman Lourie, the South African-born filmmaker and founder of Israel’s first luxury resort, Dolphin House) opened across two circa-1920s buildings in 2014. When they aren’t at the rooftop infinity pool ogling the Mediterranean Sea, or in their suites with the brilliant ceramic tiles, French doors and writing desks, there’s a good chance that guests are in the bar. True to its name, Library Bar provides them with an assortment of books to pore over should they feel so inclined. Some do, others can’t keep their eyes off this joint, which whispers of the 1940s with a burnished pewter bar, hexagonal stools and bouquets poking out of vases. Classics, including the underrated ‘Bamboo’ and ‘Angel’s Share’, are on the cocktail menu, but better to sample the region’s culinary bounty with signature drinks that make way for the likes of Jaffa oranges. Norman gin, made in collaboration with the Israeli Jullius Distillery, combining dates, almonds, citrons and Galilee herbs, is the spirited backbone of the ‘First Date’, with lemon juice, date syrup and grapefruit just picked from the hotel’s garden.
Pomegranate juice spiffs up the Whiskey-A-Go-Go and gives it Israeli flair. Although the Library Bar creates a sous-vide blend of freshly squeezed pomegranate, cardamom, pink peppercorns and cloves, home bartenders can follow the easier variation here.
No. 31
Burj Royale
SKYVIEW BAR & RESTAURANT AT BURJ AL ARAB JUMEIRAH, DUBAI, UAE
INGREDIENTS
20 ml (⅔ fl oz) Grey Goose La Vanille vanilla vodka
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) Chambord
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) Monin gum syrup
1–2 fresh raspberries
1–2 fresh blackberries
100 ml (3½ fl oz) Louis Roederer Brut Premier Champagne
edible gold dust, to garnish
METHOD
Muddle all the ingredients except the Champagne in a cocktail shaker, then shake. Double strain into a chilled Martini glass, then pour the Champagne over a bar spoon to layer on top. Garnish with edible gold dust.
Futuristic high-rises dominate Dubai’s ever-changing skyline, yet Burj Al Arab, the seemingly fluttering sail-shaped hotel designed by British architect Tom Wright, is undoubtedly one of the most wondrous and enduring. When it opened in 1999, the all-suite Burj Al Arab was a turning point for Dubai, shaping the emirate’s narrative of a desert-turned-megalopolis ruled by illusion. Ascending from a man-made island, the steel-glass-aluminium skyscraper with the towering atrium and bevy of butlers encapsulates over-the-top grandeur; a place where choosing from nearly 20 different types of pillows to sleep on, running your hand over 24-carat gold leaf, and splashing around in pools prettified with 10 million mosaic tiles is the norm.
Shisha smoking unfolds in the aptly shiny Gold on 27, complemented by cocktails such as ‘Scent of the Souk’, with apricot- and fig-infused gin, baharat-spiced syrup and mastika. On the same floor, ask for a Vesper or a non-boozy smoked-honey Old Fashioned with King Pu-Erh and barrel-aged oolong teas at Skyview Bar & Restaurant. Arabian Gulf vistas are magnified through the glass walls and the ceiling, plastered with blue and green lights, is sheer Dubai flamboyance.
SPOTLIGHT:
PARADISE ON THE WATER
sun-drenched seascapes that will enrich
A ROOM WITH A VIEW
/> Imbibing while taking in an eye-popping vista is a particularly intoxicating combination. Try it at one of these hotels.
LUX Belle Mare Resort & Villas, Mauritius: At this Kelly Hoppen-designed boutique resort on the beach, nestled inside tropical gardens close to the village of Belle Mare, sounds of the Indian Ocean will tease you out of bed for a Mauritian kheer breakfast. Much later, say goodbye to the day at Mari Kontan, the darling cabana-style poolside hut that narrates the island’s history, with over 100 different types of rum to taste.
Six Senses Laamu, Maldives: Guests trek to remote Laamu Atoll to stay in one of the beachfront or over-water thatched villas at Six Senses Laamu. When they are done with their slate of open-air yoga classes and Ayurvedic treatments, they scatter off to the over-water Chill Bar and wait for the DJ with an ‘Abandon Ship’ (Corralejo Blanco tequila, mango-coriander [cilantro] cordial, pineapple, citrus and spicy fire-water tincture), or plop down onto one of the low-slung wooden stools at Sip Sip, the sunken bar that looks onto the Indian Ocean, with a ‘Maldivian Milk Punch’ (Bacardi rum, aged arrack and spiced syrup).
AYANA Resort and Spa, Bali: On a cliff-top above Jimbaran Bay, AYANA has a dozen swimming pools and butler-serviced villas tucked into the gardens. Rock Bar is maybe the most striking aspect of the property, despite the uncomfortable crowds who also want to see the sun slink into the horizon, 14 metres (46 feet) above the Indian Ocean, with a chamomile-infused gin and tonic or a kaffir-leaf ‘Lychee Martini’.
Halekulani, Hawaii: Halekulani first started welcoming weary fishermen on Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach in 1883; by 1907, it was a full-fledged hotel. A hit with honeymooners, Halekulani promises strawberry-basil Martinis and live jazz at the living room-like Lewers Lounge, but the real treat is the indoor-outdoor House Without a Key. Sitting underneath the more-than-a-century-old kiawe tree, looking onto Diamond Head and serenaded by the quirky ukulele, is the ideal way to become acquainted with their signature Mai Tai.