Iconic Hotel Bars and the Drinks That Were Born in Them
by Cocktail Ceremony
2 min reading time
The Singapore Sling at Raffles, the White Lady at the Savoy - the world's great hotel bars didn't just serve classics, they invented them. A tour of the rooms and the drinks.
The great hotel bar is a genre of its own - grander than a neighbourhood spot, steeped in glamour, and, remarkably often, the birthplace of a drink you already know. Here are the legendary hotel rooms and the classics they gave the world.
Raffles, Singapore - the Singapore Sling
The most famous hotel drink of all. The Singapore Sling was created at Raffles Hotel's Long Bar in the early 1900s - a pink, tropical gin drink invented so that women could drink in public without appearing to drink alcohol. Today the Long Bar still serves thousands, peanut shells crunching underfoot.
The Savoy, London - the White Lady & the Hanky Panky
The American Bar at The Savoy is the most storied hotel bar on earth. Ada Coleman invented the Hanky Panky here, and Harry Craddock is credited with popularising the White Lady - two classics from one address.
The Ritz, Paris - Bar Hemingway
Small, wood-panelled, and dripping with literary myth. The bar the author claimed to have "liberated" is now a temple to him, where a single perfect Martini or a Serendipity is served like a ceremony.
The Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans - the Vieux Carré
The rotating Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone is a New Orleans institution, and the city's hotel bars gave us the Vieux Carré - rye, cognac, vermouth, Bénédictine - a rich local classic born in a hotel lounge.
The Connaught & The Langham, London
Modern hotel bars keep the tradition alive: the Connaught Bar is famous for its tableside Martini trolley, and The Langham's Artesian repeatedly topped "world's best bar" lists - proof that the hotel bar is still where innovation happens.
Why hotel bars invent so many classics
It's no accident. Hotel bars have three things a neighbourhood spot often lacks: an international clientele who carry a drink home across the world, the budget and prestige to let a bartender experiment, and time - guests who linger. Put those together for a century and you get a disproportionate share of the Top 100.
Book the room, or just the drink: you don't need to check in to drink cocktail history - most of these bars welcome walk-ins, and every one is a lesson in the romance of the bar. Order the house classic; that's why it's there. Recreate the hotel-bar ceremony at home with tools from Cocktail Ceremony.
