London's chicest cocktails

‘Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance,’ opined Coco Chanel. Hers is a tenet transferable to chic cocktails, where a core spirit acts as the main article, adorned with complementary, or classily contrasting, accessories of vermouth, bitters and perfume-like essences…

The Savoy’s Beaufort Bar renders explicit the relationship betwixt cocktails and couture. Guests are lit almost as under a spotlight, with views to the former cabaret stage that now curtains a tall bar. Ordered from an illustrated, limited run menu book evoking a grown-ups’ version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the ‘Height of Fashion’ cocktail takes inspiration from the hotel’s red lift.

According to bartender Alex Walker, young porter Guccio Gucci once conveyed guests’ leather steamer trunks in this ‘ascending room’. Inspired by the hotel’s opulent surroundings, Gucci subsequently formed the eponymous fashion brand in 1920s Florence.

Negroni-like, Walker’s libation collages cognac, Campari, Aperol and vermouth with a secret tincture evoking limousine leather. The result is smoothly powerful: an iron fist in a velvet glove, best sipped in glad rags while beholding the bar’s monthly burlesque show.

At Dukes, furtively tucked away from St James’ main avenue, debonair Alessandro Palazzi crafts a cocktail commemorating the hotel’s partnership with Lock & Co, the world’s oldest hat shop. ‘Odd Job 1676’ combines Konik’s Tail saffron-infused vodka with Galliano L’Autentico and, to Palazzi’s recipe, amber vermouth. Palazzi explains his cocktail takes the name of the Bond villain that Lock & Co hatted, ‘Dukes being the ultimate destination for fans of the fictitious British spy.’

Finally, you can sip cocktails inside an actual fashion store at bijou Ralph’s at Regent Street’s Ralph Lauren, sequel to Manhattan’s Polo Bar. I order Jefferson’s bourbon Old Fashioned ringside at the 12-seat bar with a dozen invigorating oysters.