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.