One of the world’s best-known bartenders has another hit on his hands
Let’s talk about Salvatore Calabrese’s latest bar Velvet. Set in the Corinthia hotel and dolled up by the design wizards at David Collins Interiors Studio (the team behind Bob Bob Ricard, Nobu and a healthy chunk of Harrods) who have breathed their usual luxurious eccentricity into the space.
With more velvet than a David Lynch fever dream and the odd splash of oil-slick black polished surfaces, you’d be mistaken to think you’d walked into a 1920s Hollywood movie theatre, even the air feels a bit more exclusive. You might leave feeling famous (and slightly poorer), but hey, that’s the price of rubbing elbows with the cocktail maestro himself, Salvatore Calabrese.
Approaching new bar openings is like going on a date – you’ve got to set your hopes, fears, and boundaries. With a nickname like the “Cocktail Maestro” my hopes are sky high and with claims to inventing the world’s most expensive cocktail (an eye-watering £5,500 affair served at The Playboy Club) it’s clear that our man Salvatore doesn’t do things by halves.
Their latest menu, ‘The Quote Book’ reimagines 21 real and fictitious characters as cocktails – the execution is genius. My “fears” for this evening were only realised upon spotting a Michael Jordan-inspired cocktail served in a basketball with ketchup as a key ingredient. Having been greeted by Salvatore himself, an old-school, elegant, charmer of a man, I needed to understand how this aggressively American combo deserved a spot on the cocktail list. Salvatore shoots and scores instantly, the first cocktail is sweet, fun and uplifting. The ‘Tommy K’ is subtle but not completely hidden.
I take the barman’s recommendation on my second drink. ‘The Icon’ inspired by Steve Jobs was nothing short of alchemy. Every glass has been hand-picked and in most cases designed by Salvatore to fit the cocktail. This glass is dainty and etched, the cocktail itself is punchy but balanced, a grown-up cocktail. It is served with an ornately decorated tiny plate just for the cherry pip. I try not to consider what aspirations the tiny bowl may have had for his life. The food menu is short and deliberate, everything served with the same precision and dedication to aesthetic and taste as the cocktails.
You could very easily, happily get carried away here. At 9pm, a band takes to the stage playing jazz renditions of pop songs, the piano fuses into the surface of the bar which is just an extension of the stage where the cocktail virtuosos are putting on quite a show.
I’ve realised my only boundary tonight might be to stop short of bankrupting myself by letting these spirit sorcerers/booze wizards continue to coerce me into ordering these damn delicious drinks. By the end of the evening I’ve had boyfriends I’ve trusted less than these guys. This is a bar for celebrations, special dates, or to cosplay as Audrey Hepburn. Definitely worth the pilgrimage to Westminster, your taste buds will thank you, and your wallet will forgive you eventually.
10 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2BD
corinthia.com