WHAT’LL IT BE?
If wellness holidays aren’t your thing, how about a visit to one of the world’s best bars instead, writes Sam Wylie-Harris.
If you harbour a love of fine drinks in fine places, then discovering exciting watering holes is probably part of your travel adventures.
A new cocktail bible could well assist you. Straight Up: Where To Drink & What
To Drink On Every Continent, by Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley takes liquor-lovers on a liquid odyssey around the globe, taking in cherry-picked drinking spots “soundtracked by laughter, with a backdrop of the clinking of glasses and the chitter-chatter of conversation”.
Intrigued? Here are five of Harrison and Ridley’s favourite bars that will make you feel totally at home.
Dukes Hotel, London
If we had our way, every great bar in the world would have its own unique theme tune to hum while you sipped and savoured their delicacies. If Dukes had a theme tune, it would be Monty Norman’s James Bond
Theme, as this discreet hotel bar nestled in the back streets of St James’ has suave spy written all over it.
Dukes is supposedly the location where Ian Fleming developed some of his most memorable characters, and the cocktail list reflects the Bond connections sympathetically: from the zesty double punch of the classic Vesper, through to the 89 Jermyn Street, a Martini-based around Bond’s favourite fragrance, Floris’ 89.
The real highlight is the drinks trolley, where Alessandro Palazzi crafts his takes on the classics by using an array of frozen spirits and zero dilution. Powerful, charismatic and charming, the drinks should be issued with a licence to kill, given their potency. dukeshotel.com
Door 74, Amsterdam
Door 74 can make the lofty claim of being Amsterdam’s first speakeasy-styled bar, and since it opened back in 2008 it has been thrilling customers with its timeless Prohibition-style chic. It’s there from the sliding panel in the nondescript front door where you are greeted, all the way through to where you are served incredibly well-crafted cocktails from a variety of frankly bizarre glassware (think drinking horns and glass skulls). Door 74 has clearly honed its craft to become one of the most important destinations in the city’s cocktail culture. door-74.com
Little Red Door, Paris
Artistic, avant-garde and undoubtedly stylish could very well apply to any number of places in Paris, but Little Red Door probably tops them all, throwing in sheer ingenuity and a little craziness for good measure.
The bar, headed up by Remy Savage, has redefined the approach to the creation of the cocktail, looking beyond merely bringing flavours together, to applying art concepts — and architecture, too. The previous menu paired a number of different illustrations with each specific drink, and the current menu has applied various architectural theories in the design and aesthetic of both the vessel the drink is consumed from and the way it is constructed.
This may sound a little pretentious, but the results are staggering. Credit must go to the bar team here for helping to change not only the perspective of how we look at flavour but also the way we interact with our drinks and the environment around them. The reinvention of the Paris bar scene very much continues. lrdparis.com
McSorley’s Ale House, New York
New York is steeped in history, shaping much of the 19th and 20th century with music, fashion, art, architecture, politics, film and literature.
Sitting through all of this, quietly observing, and no doubt having its own small influence, has been the great venue that is McSorley’s Ale House. Originally called The Old House at Home, this watering hole first flung open its saloon doors in the mid-1800s, but only to men.
In fact, this place admitted women for the first time only after legally being forced to do so in 1970 and is said to have had such luminaries as Abe Lincoln, John Lennon and Hunter S Thompson through its doors.
Even Prohibition couldn’t stop this place from serving, and this Grand Old Man of New York keeps going today. A must-visit when you’re in Manhattan, this is a true spit-and-sawdust venue that serves only ales, and of course a cheese platter with raw onions. mcsorleysoldalehouse.nyc
Zoetrope, Tokyo
An intriguing bar, named after the ancient spinning cylindrical device that gives the illusion of a moving image. However, there are no illusions here as you stare at the incredibly well-stocked back bar with a good few hundred rare Japanese single malts.
Zoetrope is probably one of Tokyo’s leading bars in this field, lovingly curated and cared for by the owner, Atsushi Horigami. Enjoy one of his many whisky recommendations while watching old films from the age of silent movies, which are projected on to the back wall.
A very unique experience indeed and certainly top of the visitors’ list for any Japanese whisky aficionado.