Jason Allen 01/02/22
At the 5 star Langham Hotel’s cocktail bar, less is more.
Except when it comes to the decor.
It’s been designed as a nod to the old Victorian cabinets of curiosities: desks, sideboards, even rooms brimming with exotic objects brought back from around the world… although really the result is somewhere between that, and what you’d expect from a £350-a-night hotel bar.
Mirrored shelves lined with bottles are displayed in gilded, pagoda-style frames; lamp shades rest on horse heads; and the seating is all purple leather. However it also boasts a few classical touches, like the floor-to-ceiling bay windows which flood the space with light during the daytime, and huge, over-sized chandeliers that bathe it in a warm, yellowy glow at night.
It’s possible you already know about Artesian, as it was crowned World’s Best Bar four years in a row (2011-2015) – though it’s changed hands since then. Holding the reins nowadays are Head Bartender Remy Savage (previously of Paris’ Little Red Door, which he also helped to get to #11 on the World’s Best list), and Bar Manager Anna Sebastian (who spent many years with the esteemed Beaufort Bar).
Over the lockdown, the team put their heads together to create a new menu themed around Connection. After a period of stripped-back minimalism, featuring drinks made with two key ingredients, theatricality is back on the menu here. Meticulously prepared in their underground drinks laboratory and served with super-cold, high-density ice, current concoctions include the Layer Cake, combining Bacardi 8 Rum, kernel stout syrup, chocolate malt distillate and coconut cream; Around The Kitchen, with gin, Discarded banana rum, avocado pit orgeat, pineapple & coffee tepache, lime juice and cachaca; and the Beach Bar Paradise, whose layered gin, Chambord, horchata ice cream and blue curacao slowly ebb into each other to create the illusion of waves lapping up against a beach – in a glass.
You should dive right in.
NOTE: Artesian is open Mon-Sat (no bookings on Fri/Sat). For more information or to book, visit their website here.
Artesian | Langham Hotel, 1C Portland Place, W1B 1JA
Like interesting cocktails? Check out the best cocktail bars in London.
Langham Hotel, 1C Portland Place, Marylebone, Central London, W1B 1JA View On Map
020 7636 1000
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9.0 | Amazing
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