Here at UJHQ, we’re fans of the B&B. Not bed and breakfast, but bed and beverage, the new wave of cocktail bars with rooms, merging the bar experience with the room experience, from cocktail trolley turn-down services and signature drinks in the mini fridge to ‘make your own kits’ and bar side check ins. Welcome B&B 2.0.
Forget the days of club lounges. Right now, it’s all about happy hour coming to you. Soho House has been doing it for ages, with martinis delivered on wheels to your bedroom, served by a bartender, from a cart, to your taste. The Hospital Club have followed suit, with their Ketel One trolley turn-down service, featuring all the classics such as vodka or gin martinis, negronis, cosmopolitans and manhattans, delivered at a prompt 7pm.
No trolley, no problem. Thanks to bottled cocktails, our mini bars are starting to replace the actual, well, bar. Our favourites so far: Mr Lyan’s at Mondrian and The Zetter Townhouse’s Old Fashioneds and martinis, pre-mixed and bottled to perfection. Don’t want to drink from a bottle? Both Zetter and Soho House provide you with mixing glasses, stirrers and all the essential ingredients. Go!
In LA, celebrated wine and beer bar, Bar Covell, have just opened five boutique suites upstairs: Hotel Covell, naturally. Over in Paris, opening in April, is the new Le Grand Pigalle, the first hotel from the guys behind Experimental Cocktail Club and, like Zetter Townhouse, ‘the spirit of bed & beverage reigns’: think check ins at the bar, pre-bottled cocktails as standard, and room service that includes the full downstairs bar menu. Vino-wise? Sommeliers are part and parcel of room service – chat, choose and they’ll deliver.
Bottoms up.
