The 125-year-old American Bar is Mecca for bartenders the world over and has influenced the design and menus of boundless cocktail bars with its retro ritzy glamour.
It is the oldest surviving cocktail bar in Britain, having opened in 1893, and is willing to share that heritage in liquid form.
Its pedigree is phenomenal, having played home to legends of the bartending scene such as Ada Coleman, Harry Craddock and Peter Dorelli.
It is, simply, a beautiful bar and place to be. The shelves behind the bar are stocked to bursting, making it look like what could be one of the world’s best libraries.
Although that is to be expected from within such an outstanding hotel and bar, both of which are sights to behold.
This bar pays the most attention to detail when it comes to serving drinks, with the taste, theatre, glassware and aroma of the drinks clearly being the most important things to the bartenders.
American Bar’s usual cocktail menu is weighty and somewhat indescribable. It is a history lesson in cocktails, as well as the bar’s past and possibly featuring the strongest selection of drinks out of any bar worldwide.
However, a limited edition cocktail menu, designed by head bartender Shannon Tebay, is a refined and smaller offering of 15 elegant drinks featuring serves such as Cassiopfia, made using Grey Goose Vodka, Grand Marnier, cranberry, nocino, lemon and Laurent Perrier Champagne; the Orion, made with Michter’s 10 Year Bourbon, Diplomatico Reserve Exclusive Rum, vintage port, Early Grey, egg and cream, and the Suffragette, consisting of Suntory Roku Gin, Choya Umeshu, Lillet Rose, Peychaud Bitters and absinthe to name just a few of the standout serves.
Please note that the American Bar is temporarily closed.
