The Gallery Opening

There’s an art to a great cocktail. And that’s especially true of the Lobby Bar’s cocktail menu, created to celebrate the incredible art collection that calls One Aldwych home.

‘When I first stepped into the hotel, what I noticed is that it’s not just a cool hotel, it’s an interesting hotel that does things properly.
It engages with the locale and focusses on qualitative experiences and the artwork is a really big part of that,’ says Marcis Dzelzainis, co-founder of Idyll Drinks and collaborative consultant for the bar’s latest cocktail menu called ‘The Gallery’.

Before I started on the actual mixology with Roberto Di Paolo, the head bartender and Gosia Krok, Lobby Bar manager, I spent a lot of time just enjoying the art that you can see everywhere within this fantastic building,’ recalls Marcis. ‘I was struck by how much of it is by compelling British artists, often reflecting a connection with nature. That’s when it came to me. That our new cocktails
could be inspired by standout pieces, be they paintings or sculptures, that explore that theme with an understated (or in some cases, out-there) sense of Britishness.’

While Philip Diggle’s Michel Foucault, a Punk explosion of colour and emotion on canvas, is perfectly described as you imbibe the Blueberry Enzoni, with its irreverent clash of gin, Campari, blueberries and lemon. The splash of Raspberry Eau de Vie, by the way, has been distilled to preserve and elevate the juiciness of the fruit, capturing the essence of the landscape in which they’re grown.

‘We’re not creating puns for the pairings of cocktails and pieces,’ says Marcis.