by Alia Akkam
To guests, a hotel bar might have the feel of a beautifully orchestrated mirage, but behind the scenes they are propelled by efficiency and practicality. ‘One of the most interesting challenges I’m regularly faced with is underbar layout, meaning the nuts and bolts of bar equipment to create working spaces for bartenders. A thoughtful bar will save thousands of dollars in labour every year, reducing the amount of time it takes to execute service,’ says Mike Ryan, head of bars at Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants. ‘The staff should be able to focus on serving guests, not just drinks. The constant challenge is to create spaces that are functional as well as beautiful – like a majestic, four-dimensional crossword puzzle, but with booze and glass and stainless steel instead of vowels and consonants.’
A hotel bar might have the feel of a beautifully orchestrated mirage, but behind the scenes they are propelled by efficiency and practicality.
No. 44
Singapore Sling
LONG BAR AT RAFFLES SINGAPORE
Created by Ngiam Tong Boon
INGREDIENTS
30 ml (1 fl oz) Widges London Dry Gin
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) Bénédictine
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) Luxardo Cherry Sangue Morlacco
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) Crawley’s Singapore Sling Grenadine
60 ml (2 fl oz) fresh pineapple juice
22.5 ml (scant ¾ oz) freshly squeezed lime juice
a dash of Scrappy’s Spice Plantation bitters
cherry and pineapple chunk, to garnish
METHOD
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously for about 12 seconds. Strain the cocktail into a chilled highball glass. Garnish with a skewer of cherry and pineapple.
Champalimaud Design’s restoration of Raffles Singapore in 2019 has unleashed a spurt of renewed interest in this hotel with the ethereal ivory wedding-cake façade. Dating back to 1887, the hotel has pep once more, with buffed eucalyptus and marble floors and a floral-inspired chandelier drenched in crystals taking centre-stage in the triple-story lobby. Long Bar enthusiasts need not fret because the palm fans are still in place and the peanut shells continue to litter the floor.
What has changed, for the better, is the recipe for Long Bar’s signature Singapore Sling. Over the years, the drink – invented in 1915 by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon – had, critics demurred, gone downhill; its too-sweet, too-fruity taste profile an affront to all those cocktail warriors beneficently advancing palates. Long Bar’s current variation harks back to the early 20th-century days of Boon, emphasising quality ingredients for drier, balanced results. The hallmark herbal Bénédictine liqueur is still an integral component, it’s just united now with all-natural pomegranate grenadine syrup, cardamom-heavy Widges London Dry Gin, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao and custom ‘Spice Plantation’ bitters. Have one, at least, then make the ‘Golden Milk Punch’, a saffron-spiced almond milk, ginger and apricot liqueur concoction honouring Rudyard Kipling’s 1889 visit to Raffles, your next call.
No. 45
Mad Dog
MANHATTAN AT REGENT SINGAPORE
INGREDIENTS
60 ml (2 fl oz) Johnnie Walker 18-year-old whisky
7.5 ml (¼ fl oz) Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
5 ml (1 teaspoon) Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
5 ml (1 teaspoon) Drambuie
2 dashes of absinthe (the bar uses St George Absinthe Verte)
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
2 dashes of Peychaud’s bitters
1 dash of Fee Brothers black walnut bitters
1 strip of lemon zest, to garnish
METHOD
Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass and add ice, then stir until chilled. Pour into a wine glass and add a large cube of ice. Express the lemon zest over the drink and drop it inside the glass to garnish.
John Portman, the pioneering late American architect and real estate developer, invigorated hotel lobbies with futuristic glass elevators whizzing up and down his intricate, vertiginous atriums. When the Pavilion InterContinental Hotel opened in 1982, it proudly ushered guests into one of Portman’s pyramid-style public spaces; today, as Regent Singapore, that vertical design is still an arresting focal point. Another, much newer one, is Manhattan, the bar with 19th-century New York undertones that opened in 2014. Sofas for cosy tête-à-têtes and Aviation-sipping overlap with leather, cabaret-conjuring curtains, and the showpiece marble bar. Manhattan has a reverence for classics, but there is an audacious streak, too. Barrels of ageing cocktails, for example, are stacked in the first-ever in-hotel rickhouse. ‘50/50 Martinis’ are plumped up with Mathilde peach liqueur and taste-shifting garnishes of apple, lemon peel and olive, while the ‘Meyer’s Fizz’ brings together Michter’s US*1 Sour Mash whiskey, vermouth, vanilla yoghurt milk punch, clarified lemon and sparkling water. As the ‘Kryptonite’ (Botanist gin, Marino Secco vermouth, clarified watermelon, mint syrup, tonic water) and ‘Bada Bing Bada Boom’ (The Glenlivet 12-Year-Old, Ruffino chianti, spice syrup, cherry-tobacco bitters, chocolate cigar) attest, the bar staff also have a penchant for wit.
For dramatic flourish, Manhattan smokes the Mad Dog with wild cherry bark and Schisandra berries.
No. 46
Jungle Bird
AVIARY BAR AT HILTON KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Adapted by Dez O’Connell
INGREDIENTS
50 ml (1¾ oz) Goslings rum
12.5 ml (2½ teaspoons) Campari
12.5 ml (2½ teaspoons) freshly squeezed lime juice
15 ml (½ fl oz) simple syrup (1.75 parts sugar to 1 parts water)
60 ml (2 fl oz) fresh pineapple juice
1 baby pineapple, top removed and hollowed out, to serve
1 orange wheel, to garnish
1 pickled cherry, to garnish
METHOD
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake. Fill the baby pineapple vessel with crushed ice, then strain in the cocktail. Garnish with the orange wheel and pickled cherry.
Had you passed through Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s, you could have sipped a Martini at the bar of the Hilton and watched birds flutter through a glass wall. That phenomenon, as rumour has it, is what spurred beverage manager Jeffrey Ong to create the Jungle Bird in 1973, a welcome drink coinciding with the opening of the hotel. Served in a showy ceramic bird vessel, it was a refreshing mix of rum, Campari, lime juice and sugar, garnished with fruit and flowers, that soon found its way into the tiki canon – less sweet (thanks to bitter Campari) and less complicated than its brethren.
The Hilton, which attracted guests such as Muhammad Ali and then-Princess Elizabeth through the years, turned into a Crowne Plaza and was eventually demolished. However, there’s a new Hilton Kuala Lumpur in the city, and its bar is called Aviary. There are no birds on display, but this time around there is no need for the cruel carnival side show. In Aviary, next to the sexy curved wall, a good ol’ Jungle Bird provides the night’s requisite dose of fun.
This tiki classic is best drunk out of a colourful, retro-style bird-shaped vessel. Since there’s a dearth of those up for grabs at flea markets, an in-vogue baby pineapple also provides the requisite dose of Polynesian kitsch for this adaptation from Budapest-based Dez O’Connell, who oversees cocktails for the Brodyland empire, including the bar at the boutique hotel Brody House.
No. 47
36 Above Martini
BLU BAR ON 36 AT SHANGRI - LA, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
INGREDIENTS
50 ml (1¾ fl oz) Absolut Elyx vodka
10 ml (⅓ fl oz) Peach and Nectarine Mancino Secco Vermouth Infusion*
2 dashes of orange bitters
3 olives or a lemon twist, to garnish
*For the Vermouth Infusion (makes 700 ml/24 fl oz):
1 peach, stoned (pitted) and cut into 6 slices
1 nectarine, stoned (pitted) and cut into 6 slices
700 ml (24 fl oz) Mancino Secco
/>
METHOD
For the Vermouth Infusion, combine the sliced peach and nectarine with the Mancino Secco, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. Strain into a clean container and the vermouth infusion is ready to use.
To make the cocktail, add the ingredients to a mixing glass and top with ice, then stir for about 20 seconds. Double strain into a chilled Martini glass and finish with a garnish of olives or a lemon twist.
It would be foolish to come all the way to Sydney and not spend ample time basking within a sight line to the Sydney Opera House. That’s why many travellers plot an evening, or an afternoon tea, at Blu Bar on 36. From the 36th floor of the Shangri-La, it feels as if you are floating over the concrete, shell-shaped architectural wonder. Together with the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it’s a scene that simply wows.
The Shangri-La opened in the Rocks area in 2003. Although guests swoon over the marble baths and floral patterns splashed across headboards and carpets, it’s the bar that is likely their favourite aspect of the hotel. Martinis are an art form here, and there seems to be at least one on every table, but the originals also shine. Begin with a ‘Two At Most’ (Del Maguey Vida mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, lime, falernum, absinthe rinse) and end with the ‘GPS’, a fusion of Laphroaig, Campari and Dubonnet. The cocktails are as commendable as what lies outside the glass walls.
SPOTLIGHT:
AVROKO ON LIGHTING
the transformative power of visual craftsmanship
LIGHTING AS ARTISTIC NARRATIVE
Partners Greg Bradshaw, Adam Farmerie, William Harris and Kristina O’Neal founded AvroKO in 2001; since then, the design and concept firm has expanded from its New York base to studios in Bangkok, San Francisco and London. A force on the global hospitality scene, AvroKO has designed such Asian hotel bars as Charles H. at Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, Jing at The Temple House in Chengdu, Terrible Baby at Eaton HK in Hong Kong, and UNION and Superfly at The Opposite House in Beijing. Marvellous lighting, woven throughout AvroKO projects, is crucial to the quartet’s artistic process. As AvroKO delineates here, this element – all too often neglected in bar settings – is a chance to tell a meaningful story.
Lighting is one of the strongest narrative creators in bar atmospheres. It can create mystery, incite delight or even encourage a particular mood. It can even literally be the story in the room. For us, these are all enticing aspects of the power of lighting design.
We use numerous strategies to create lighting that serves as both art and narrative support. So many designers can make beautiful things, but infusing lighting with a sense of story that creates a deeper connection and sense of meaning is a wonderful challenge and a necessary fuel for an ambitious designer. Abstractly illustrating a story allows guests room for their own interpretation of a piece or the experience the lighting is creating. This kinship can become poetic, with the guests being active participants and, in a sense, creative collaborators in the completion of the statement. When guests can be part of the dialogue, it is that much more satisfying and stimulating.
Lighting also becomes successful as art when there is a sense of awe and delight. Unconventional materials and shapes, unexpected locations, and the wonder of scale can all be employed to great effect; encouraging people to stop and engage, without drowning out the rest of the experience.
Finally, helping people feel physically and emotionally better through proper lighting design is vital. Typically, this includes finding ways to cast a warm glow while also allowing the light to be soft and welcoming. Proper lighting also helps define a space for guests, crafting their journey and creating a sense of place and grounding.
For example, at Nan Bei, a contemporary Chinese restaurant on the 19th floor of the Rosewood hotel in Bangkok with a beautiful, monolithic bar crafted from Portoro Gold marble with satin brass trim detailing, we employed ephemeral lighting design in a dramatic installation to greet guests as they arrive. This installation is an abstraction of a piece of the narrative we were using as inspiration for the interior design as a whole, which was based on the Chinese legend of the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd. As legend has it, the Weaver Girl, who resided in heaven, came down to earth and fell in love with the Cowherd. However, their love was forbidden, and they were only allowed to meet once a year by crossing the night sky over a bridge of magpies.
In the grand open atrium, as a whimsical illustration of this meeting, we crafted over 800 hand-folded ‘magpies’ out of thin brass metal mesh. These were then hung to create a subtle, arching bridge form. Thousands of warm, glittering LED lights were then installed seven metres high to fill out the space, in essence creating an ethereal night sky. The reflective glass of the surrounding corridors reflects the glowing installation beautifully, creating a magical sense of never-ending expanse. To frame the artwork, we created a modern moon-gate screen, within which we installed a curving upholstered bench. Interactivity is also quite important to us, and with the addition of the bench, curious guests can sit and become part of the piece itself. The resulting effect has become one of the most photographed areas of the restaurant and is now a signature element of the space and the brand.
create mystery, incite delight
...
a deeper connection and sense of meaning
...
wonder of scale
No. 48
QT G&T
THE ROOFTOP AT QT, QT MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
INGREDIENTS
2 slices of cucumber
45 ml (1½ fl oz) Tanqueray gin
15 ml (½ fl oz) St-Germain liqueur
15 ml (½ fl oz) freshly squeezed lime juice
15 ml (½ fl oz) simple syrup
tonic water, to top up
METHOD
Muddle the cucumber in the bottom of a highball glass. Add the gin, St-Germain, lime juice and syrup, then add ice and top up with tonic water, stirring it into the drink with a bar spoon.
Melbourne’s bar scene is ruled by rooftops. Every night, locals head outdoors and on high, carousing with their crew as the city opens up wide below them. It doesn’t take much for a rooftop bar to sing; the constant crowds, who hop from venue to venue, are testament to the popularity of guzzling atop a building. Every once in a while, though, you stumble upon a bar that doesn’t just rest on its handsome views, and instead brings panache to what often feels ordinary. QT Melbourne’s indoor-outdoor The Rooftop at QT is one of them. As part of the quirky, art- and design-centric QT Hotels & Resorts portfolio, QT Melbourne values aesthetics and the rooftop – one of the hugest layouts in the city – follows suit. The bar, wrapped in glistening green brick-style tiles and harmonised with lots of hanging plants, is a beauty. Nestle up against pillows at one of the candle-lit tables and order fish tacos with a Vanilla Passionfruit Pisco Sour or the ‘Bullet Train to Spain’ (Bulleit bourbon, Pedro Ximénez sherry, orgeat, lemon and kaffir lime leaves). Even though DJs only make appearances for special events, there is the energy of a pulsating party up here on weekends. Luckily, it never sacrifices cheer.
No. 49
The Remedy
PAPER DAISY AT HALCYON HOUSE, CABARITA BEACH, AUSTRALIA
INGREDIENTS
4 mixed seasonal berries, plus extra to garnish
60 ml (2 fl oz) dry gin (the bar uses Brookie’s Byron, distilled in Byron Bay and made with Australian botanicals)
20 ml (⅔ fl oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice
20 ml (⅔ fl oz) Mixed Berry Shrub*
plain kombucha, to top up
fresh mint sprig, to garnish
*For the Mixed Berry Shrub (makes 700 ml/24 fl oz):
100 g (3½ oz) blueberries
100 g (3½ oz) blackberries
100 g (3½ oz) raspberries
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) white sugar
500 ml (17 fl oz) apple cider vinegar
METHOD
For the Mixed Berry Shrub, muddle the berries in a 1 litre (34 fl oz) jar. Add the sugar and vinegar, cover and let it sit for 1 week. Strain into a clean bottle or j
ar. It will keep for 3 months.
To make the cocktail, softly muddle the berries in the bottom of a Boston glass, just enough to burst open the fruit. Add a little crushed ice, along with the gin, lemon juice and shrub and stir. Top with kombucha and garnish with more crushed ice, a mint sprig and berries.
Cabarita Beach, some 90 minutes south of Brisbane, epitomises the concept of holiday. There is no choice but to chill out here on the east coast of Australia, and a stay at Halcyon House almost demands it. An upscale beach house stocked with vintage furniture and decorated with upholstered fabric walls and blue-and-white tiles, it was opened in 2015 by two visionary sisters who saw great promise in this old surfer motel. Guests do, too. They spend mornings taking surf lessons or doing beachside yoga, then after they’ve gone hot-air ballooning over Mount Warning or walking through a remnant of coastal rainforest to Norries Headland, they are ready to laze about in the Halcyon House pool that smacks of Old Hollywood. There is another stop before calling it a night, though: Paper Daisy. Crammed with artwork, Halcyon House’s sun-streaked restaurant is smart yet homey. Locals are also smitten with the place, even if it’s only to imbibe at the all-white bar. Cocktails including the ‘Spicy Tryst’ (chilli-infused Grey Goose vodka, lime juice, burnt-orange syrup, mango nectar, passion-fruit pulp) and ‘Down the Garden Path’ (Four Pillars Rare dry gin, basil- and-mint shrub, cucumber, lemon juice, basil- and-grapefruit soda) precisely summarise the Halcyon House ethos.