New York’s Finest Bartenders Are Reinvigorating the City’s Hotel Bar Scene
At the swanky Four Seasons Hotel New York, guests at the TY Bar can sip on a crisp, well-honed cocktail while enjoying the scene amid a buzzy, see-and-be-seen crowd. On the surface, it seems more or less like a normal, stylish hotel bar. Except when the hotel reopened last November following a several-year closure and refresh that began during the pandemic, transforming the bar into a world-class, modern operation became an emphasis. The hotel tabbed Toby Maloney to develop a bar program worthy of the stunning environs amid the I.M. Pei-designed building, with the bar located in an immaculate lobby featuring grand columns supporting a 33-foot-tall glass ceiling.
“The new menu is based on four different eras in New York City drinking culture, and from there we delved into vintage cocktail books and local drinking lore, taking those recipes and using as many New York products as possible,” Maloney says. “The reception has been enthusiastic, and the cocktails are selling well to both hotel guests and locals who stop by for a tipple.”
It’s no secret that hotel bars were once the training yard and breeding grounds of the city’s finest bartenders. That lineage can be traced back all the way to the Jerry Thomas era, when hotel bars, saloons, and clubs reigned as the premier places for a drink. Come up with a newfangled cocktail at one such institution and ply your trade for a decade or two, and you could become a bartender with a capital N Name. That more or less remained the pattern in the almost two centuries since, straight to the modern era when Dale DeGroff took over Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle, and brought through a contingent of protégées at the establishment.
Maloney’s efforts at the TY Bar are indicative of a trend that has flipped the script on the city’s legendary hotel bar scene. The tides have turned. Like the reversal of a cyclone’s winds in the Southern Hemisphere — but not of a toilet bowl’s flush, thank you very much — things are now moving in the opposite direction.
The hotel bar used to be the gilded training grounds, the place to establish oneself in the bar world before perhaps moving onto individual projects. Now, it’s where established bartenders are being recruited to return, often restoring glory to faded institutions or lending their credentials to big-swing hotel bars looking for instant credibility.
NYC’s Top Bar Talent Is Now Flowing Back to the Hotel Bar, Not From It
For Maloney, the current dynamic is due in part to hotels deciding at long last to take bars and cocktails more seriously. “Hotel bars, especially those in luxury hotels, have always been the first contact with a city for discerning travelers, and for centuries, wine appreciation was the hallmark of sophistication,” he says. “Now we are in an age where the cocktail is that same handshake with a wink and nod.”
Of course, high-end hotels have always valued restaurants and wine and, in turn, chefs and sommeliers. Mixed drinks and cocktails and the people making them? Not so much. “I think that hotels are now putting a lot of effort into making their bars beautiful, comfortable, and destination-worthy,” Maloney says. In turn, some of that chef- and somm-shine is being transferred onto bartenders. That’s not news in the restaurant and bar world at large, but in the more insular and corporate hotel sphere, it represents a major shakeup. “Bartenders are just now stepping into the spotlight, earning the same reverence once reserved for sommeliers,” Maloney says.
Such shifts have become a brand USP for Four Seasons in Asia, turning its bar program into a World’s 50 Best juggernaut, and are now happening in New York in great numbers. At Virgin Hotels New York, Charles Joly spearheaded the opening of The Riff Raff Club, which debuted last September. Julie Reiner partnered with Omni Hotels for its Blitzen’s Bar this past holiday season, including at Berk’s Bar at the Omni Berkshire Place. And though they looked to London for its talent as opposed to closer to home, when The Ned launched Little Ned and revamped a program including six bars, ranging from members-only to public spaces, they tabbed Chris Moore, formerly the head bartender of the storied Beaufort Bar at The Savoy.
Credit: Riff Raff Club on Instagram
Meanwhile, the iconic Waldorf Astoria New York is set to reopen this spring following an enormous eight-year renovation, and it’s announced that Jeff Bell of PDT and Apres Cru Hospitality will be developing the cocktail program at the hotel’s Peacock Alley Bar and Lex Yard restaurant.
“It was likely a riskier business to open a cocktail-focused business in spacious, elegant spaces 20 years ago,” Bell says, explaining why perhaps big-budget, big-brand hotels took so long to become converted adherents to the cocktail renaissance. In this case, though, he also has big shoes to fill, as Peacock Alley’s venerated longtime beverage director Frank Caiafa literally wrote the book on the subject: “The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book.” The establishment has a modern history of taking cocktails seriously, and it’s up to Bell to carry that forward as the hotel reemerges from its lengthy closure.
“There are times that I get to a far-flung hotel, and I just want something easy and familiar to start with, something that isn’t going to make me think too much with my jet-lagged brain. Then after a quick freshen up, it’s time to try something that evokes the local flavors, and showcases the creativity of the bar.”
Getting the chance to lead a program at an institution such as the Waldorf Astoria therefore signifies a major achievement for anyone in the hospitality industry, whether in the kitchen or behind the bar, the equivalent of landing a leading role in an awards-chasing summer blockbuster or receiving a call up to the big leagues to start Game 1 for the Yankees. “This partnership is a dream come true and I welcome the challenge,” Bell says. “Having the opportunity to execute a cocktail program with elevated standards required for such a storied hotel like Waldorf Astoria New York is why I chose to work in this industry in New York City.”
Credit: Four Seasons
Back at TY Bar at the Four Seasons, Maloney’s menu puts the city front and center. It’s described as “a liquid love letter to New York City” and features cocktails separated into eras ranging from the Gilded Age, with historical notes on each classic’s inception, to the much-derided cocktail abyss of the ’80s, with reimagined takes on the Long Island Iced Tea and Sex on the Beach. Each section of the menu features recommended food pairings from chef Maria Tampakis, with a selection from the Swank and Swinging ’50s & ’60s potentially including a Three Martini Lunch flight of mini tinis alongside a tartare of steak Diane, for instance.
Hotel bars serve a unique role in that they not only need to match the property’s sense of grandeur, but also need to appeal to both visitors and locals, with a range of tastes and knowledge levels, at the same time. “I think the most difficult part of designing a hotel bar menu is getting the balance between comfort and curiosity,” Maloney says. “There are times that I get to a far-flung hotel, and I just want something easy and familiar to start with, something that isn’t going to make me think too much with my jet-lagged brain. Then after a quick freshen-up, it’s time to try something that evokes the local flavors, and showcases the creativity of the bar.”
But whether it’s an out-of-town guest choosing to book that renowned Manhattan stay for a special trip to the Big Apple, or a local griping about the trials and tribulations of living in the very same place who nevertheless wants to come in for a big night on the town, elegance and style are what they’re after in every way. It’s only logical that the cocktail bar is now more a part of that equation than ever, and that many of New York’s most well-known bartenders are leading the charge.
“Luxury to me is thoughtfulness, and that’s what our entire bar program is about,” Bell says. “This hotel is the ‘Greatest of Them All,’ and guests should expect nothing less from its cocktail menu.”
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