You’ll encounter many things at a good hotel bar—charming bartenders, overheard gossip, rooftop views of whatever beautiful city you’ve landed in. But the very best hotel bars are also rich with history, legends, and lore. They’ve served icons of all eras, and have invented many of the world's most popular classic cocktails. While the true origin of any dish or drink is often muddled and mysterious, each of these storied hotels has a claim on a cocktail and a tale to go along with it. Discover the great minds behind the martini, the Bloody Mary, and more of our favorite drinks below.
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Sidecar – Ritz, Paris
If you order a Sidecar at the Ritz, Paris, (as of 2017) it may cost you 1,500 euros ($1,621), all because of one very special main ingredient: Ritz Fine Champagne 1865 Cognac. The only other two liquids you'll find in one of the world’s most expensive cocktails are Cointreau and lemon juice. If that price point is a little out of your budget, your preferred bottle of Cognac will work just fine. The Hemingway Bar at the Ritz keeps its precise recipe under wraps, but this recipe will get the job done.
Recipe:
1 1/2 oz cognac
1 oz cointreau
1/2 oz lemon juice
Directions: Put ingredients into a shaker, and shake. Strain and pour over ice into a coupe glass.
Martini – Knickerbocker, NYC
Writer H.L. Mencken called the martini “the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet.” It’s no surprise this classic cocktail was born in a New York hotel bar; like Manhattan, a good martini is strong, dry, and smooth. A bartender at the Knickerbocker named Martini di Arma di Taggia is said to have served hotel regular John D. Rockefeller the drink for the first time.
Official Knickerbocker Recipe:
2 oz Tanqueray 10 Gin
3/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Cocchi Torino Vermouth
Dash of Hella Bitters Truth orange bitters
Dash of Hella Bitters Truth citrus bitters
Garnish with a lemon twist
Directions: Combine Tanqueray 10, dry and sweet vermouth in a mixing glass, then add two dashes of orange and citrus bitters. Add ice, stir, garnish, and serve.
Singapore Sling – Raffles, Singapore
Every bartender worth her grenadine should be able to shake a good Singapore Sling. The classic punchy pink concoction has been around more than a century. The story goes that in 1915, bartender Ngiam Tong Boon, of the legendary Long Bar at Raffles, served the very first one. In the 1920s, when the thought of a woman drinking alcohol was frowned upon by polite society, wealthy western women would sip slings on the sly—the drink’s rosy hue made it look non-alcoholic to the casual observer. Historians believe the drink’s make-up has evolved over the years, and there is debate over the original’s ingredients. Gin, lime juice, and soda water are certain, but the presence of cherry brandy, Bénédictine, and bitters depends on who you ask. Today, you’ll find all that and more shaken up in your glass (including pineapple juice, cointreau, and grenadine).
Official Raffles recipe:
1 oz gin (best with Sipsmith gin)
½ oz cherry brandy
¼ oz Bénédictine D.O.M. liqueur
¼ oz Cointreau
4 oz pineapple juice
½ oz lime juice
A dash of Angostura bitters
⅓ oz grenadine syrup
Garnish with a fresh pineapple wedge and a maraschino cherry
Directions: Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake gently. Strain into a Hurricane Glass filled with ice and garnish.
El Nacional – Hotel Nacional, Havana
Perhaps the most delicious hotel cocktail on this list, this twist on the daiquiri, which sometimes goes by the name Hotel Nacional instead, combines the sweetness of apricot brandy, rum, pineapple, and lime. The invention of the drink is credited to Wil P. Taylor, one of the barmen during the glamorous Havana hotel’s 1930s heyday (Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, and Marlon Brando were guests).
Recipe:
1 2/3 oz Havana Club Añejo 3 Años
2/3 oz apricot brandy
1 oz fresh pineapple juice
1/3 oz sugar syrup
Half of a lime
3 chunks fresh pineapple
Directions: Muddle chunks of pineapple in a shaker or a jar. Then, add the sugar syrup, Havana Club 3, brandy, pineapple juice, freshly squeezed lime juice, and three ice cubes. Shake for 30 seconds and strain into a cocktail glass.
Piña Colada – Caribe Hilton, San Juan
Is a tropical vacation really complete without at least one piña colada? Doubtful. So it makes all too much sense that the beachy drink was invented at a place like the Caribe Hilton in San Juan. Ramón “Monchito” Marrer first shook up the drink in 1954—this was pre-blender, so yes, the original was shaken. It was also non-alcoholic. A little more than two decades later, the beverage was declared the official drink of Puerto Rico.
Official Caribe Hilton Recipe:
2 oz light rum (the resort uses Bacardi)
1 oz coconut cream (the resort uses Coco Lopez)
1 oz heavy cream
6 oz pineapple juice
½ cup crushed ice
Garnish with fresh pineapple and a cherry
Directions: Mix rum, cream of coconut, heavy cream, and pineapple juice in a blender. Add ice and mix for 15 seconds. Garnish and serve in a 12-ounce glass.
Sazerac – The Roosevelt, New Orleans
The Sazerac is generally considered America’s first cocktail. In the mid-19th century, the earliest version of the drink got its name from Sazerac cognac and was made with bitters from a French Quarter druggist named Antoine Amedie Peychaud (perhaps you’ve heard of his eponymous bitters). He served it up in an egg cup called a coquetier, which supposedly gave us the current word “cocktail” through an inadvertent game of telephone. Twenty years later, the main ingredient changed to rye whiskey due to a shortage of cognac. Once the Sazerac Bar opened in the Roosevelt in 1949, the version we know and love went mainstream in New Orleans. To this day, the hotel bar is considered the place to order one when you’re in town.
Official Roosevelt Recipe (they say the only thing missing is the “secret sauce”):
1 cube sugar
1 ½ oz Sazerac Rye Whiskey or Buffalo Trace Bourbon
¼ oz Herbsaint
3 dashes Peychaud's bitters
Lemon peel
Directions: Pack an old-fashioned glass with ice. In a second old-fashioned glass, add the sugar cube and Peychaud's Bitters, then crush the sugar cube. Add the rye or bourbon to the glass containing the bitters and sugar. Remove the ice from the first glass and coat the glass with Herbsaint, then discard the remaining Herbsaint. Empty the whiskey, bitters, and sugar mixture from the second glass into the first glass and garnish with a lemon peel.
Bloody Mary – St. Regis, NYC
Long before the rest of society beheld the true beauty of brunch, hotels were enjoying the lavish, later, better breakfast. It’s all too fitting then that the Bloody Mary had its origins at a good hotel bar. In 1934, the bartender of the King Cole Bar, Fernand Petiot, shook up the first one, and soon after, it was discreetly renamed the “Red Snapper” to avoid offending any guests at the St. Regis.
Official St. Regis Recipe:
1 oz premium vodka
11 oz Bloody Mary mix (see below)
1 lemon wedge, for garnish
The Signature Bloody Mary Mix:
Juice of 3 lemons
2 ½ cans tomato juice
5 oz Worcestershire sauce
10 dashes Tabasco sauce
2 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp. ground cayenne pepper
1 tbsp. ground celery salt
2 tbsp. whole black peppercorns
Directions: Make the mix by pouring the ingredients into a container and shaking well. Strain peppercorns from the mix before adding alcohol. (Use immediately or seal and refrigerate; makes three gallons.) Fill a 12-ounce Bloody Mary glass with ice and add vodka. Fill the glass the rest of the way with mix and garnish with lemon.
