To celebrate the upcoming World Cocktail Day we have decided to check out the Cocktail Bar that has won more awards than you can shake a Martini at. This is the Dandelyan Bar.
Winner of Best New International Cocktail Bar, and World's Best Cocktail Menu at Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards last year, as well as winning the Best Bar Team in London at the Time Out Bar Awards, and awarded #3 at World's 50 Best Bars the Dandelyan Cocktail Bar is situated within the new multimillion-pound Mondrian Hotel in Sea Containers House on London's South Bank.
Created by bar impresario Ryan Chetiyawardana a.k.a. Mr Lyan - Himself twice a winner of the World's Best Bartender award, Dandelyan serves both innovative drinks and refined interpretations of the classics.
The cocktail menu, Vices of Botany, explores their love of exploitation, escapism and the full spectrum of theirs and ours guilty pleasures. It is divided into four sections: Faith, Lust, Currency and Rock 'n' Roll, plus Dandelyan ‘classics’ from old menus and their ‘Booze-less’ cocktails for delicious sin that's alcohol free.
Dispensing with ice and all perishables, Dandelyan’s menu really is groundbreaking with ingredients including 'chalk bitters', 'crystal peach nectar’ and the archaic-sounding 'dandelion capillaire'.
The interior is designed by Tom Dixon, featuring an iconic green marble bar, pink leather banquettes, velvet bucket chairs, mirrored tables, soft gold lighting and stunning river views of the Thames.
Just make sure you dress up before you drink up.
And as previously mentioned this ties in with World Cocktail Day, which is a global celebration of cocktails on the 13th of May. It marks the publication date of the first definition of a cocktail on May 13th in 1806.
The New York tabloid ‘The Balance and Columbian Repository’ defined a cocktail as “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters…” in response to a reader’s question.
It was written by editor Harry Croswell in response to a reader’s inquiry, replete with colonial-era long's and a bit of dry wit about the day’s politicians.
