Pan Pacific London taps Milroy’s team for new bar

The spirits experts behind whisky specialist Milroy’s will open a new bar called Silverleaf in the Pan Pacific London hotel next month.

The sleek bar will sit in Devonshire House, a 144-year-old building that is part of the City of London-based luxury hotel.

To develop the concept, Pan Pacific’s team has worked with Milroy’s owner and managing director Martyn ‘Simo’ Simpson, Milroy’s director of bars Chris Tanner, and Liam Broom, former bar manager of east London venue Callooh Callay. Tanner will serve as Silverleaf’s general manager, while Broom will take on the role of bar manager.

“Our vision was for a destination bar that would showcase warm hospitality with creativity and would bring something different to this wonderful part of the city, enjoyed by locals and hotel guests alike,” said Anne Golden, general manager of Pan Pacific London, which opened in September 2021.

“When we met Simo and Chris, we knew we’d found the right people with a passion to bring a unique cocktail offering to our already diverse food and beverage portfolio.”

The venue’s interiors, dreamed up by Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio, draw inspiration from ‘naturalism and the elements’. The space has been created with materials including blackened hot rolled steel, charred timber and salt-glazed British bricks, with features such as bespoke tables carved from solid marble blocks and a striking stainless steel light sculpture that serves as the entrance’s centrepiece.

The bar itself runs the length of the room, and boasts a temperature-controlled display cabinet to store its collection of high-value spirits, which has been curated by Simpson.

Silverleaf’s cocktails are also themed around naturalism and minimalism. Each drink focuses on two or three core ingredients, some of which are obscure or locally foraged. Other drinks aim to showcase familiar products in ‘new and unimagined ways’.

The debut list will feature serves such as the Heartleaf Martini, with Haku vodka, seaside distillate, heartleaf and dry vermouth; Grape + Spruce, a mix of Suntory Toki whisky, grape skin, birch and spruce; and Watermelon + Umami, with Tanqueray No. Ten gin, watermelon, umami vermouth and sake.

“When the opportunity arose to open a cocktail bar in partnership with Pan Pacific London, we leapt at the chance, as it has allowed us a new channel for creativity,” commented Tanner.

“We’ve taken the elements that we know work – curation, hospitality and training – and applied them to a diverse cocktail offering, opening up the possibilities of what we’re able to do away from whisky.”