A drink with… Chelsie Bailey, the American Bar

Only 13 people before her have been tasked with curating a cocktail menu at the American Bar at The Savoy. Last year, we grabbed a prime seat at the bar to chat with former head bartender Chelsie Bailey.

*This feature was originally published in the August 2023 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.

You’ve just completed your first year as head bartender of the American Bar – how have you found it?

Overwhelming, to say the least. It’s definitely a learning curve. Before this I worked at Happiness Forgets in east London, and my boss would come to me and say we need to refresh the menu, and within a day or two, that would be done and printed. But here there are so many departments to work with, to get from point A to point B there are a million different letters in between. But it’s been good. It’s nice having the budget to pretty much do what we wanted, and the creativity to do what we want to do as well.

Is the American Bar a bartender’s dream place to work?

Absolutely. I’ve been here a year, and whenever I say out loud that I’m the head bartender of the American Bar, I just giggle. If you told me five years ago that I’d be here, I just wouldn’t have believed you.

In May you launched The Savoy: American Bar Journal, your first menu for the bar – what was the process for this like?

It took seven months. I think we started in November, but I’d obviously been thinking about it since I started. We always had an initial idea, and then it grew. As bartenders we always write everything down, whether it is good, bad, wonderful or terrible, and Harry Craddock’s got published. So when you look at the Savoy Cocktail Book made in 1933, a lot of drinks in that book are terrible. Terrible! So that was our starting point, and from there, we just kind of looked at how The Savoy has always created drinks to honour moments to celebrate.

How does this menu differ to the ones that have come before it?

In past years, The Savoy’s menus have been quite theatrical, and while some of our prep is quite complicated, we just really wanted to bring it back to its classic roots. So when you read the menu, every drink appears way more simple than how we actually make them. There are lots of infusions and things, but when you read it, its super accessible.

Were there any serves you came up with that were difficult to crack?

Yeah, I mean, some drinks we got right straight away, and others took 14 variations. There’s a lot of pressure – there’s only 13 people before me who can say they’ve written an American Bar menu, but when I realised I needed to stop putting pressure on myself and just make a really goddamn nice drink, it was a lot easier.

How did you choose which styles of drinks you wanted on the menu?

We really paid attention to what people like drinking in the bar, and we wanted to make sure it felt familiar and not overwhelming. We have one cocktail on the menu that takes the flavours of a Pornstar martini, like the vodka and the passion fruit, but we turned it into a more elevated serve. But then we also have serves like the Jabberwock Sour, and the Cargo Fizz, so people then see the classic cocktail name, they recognise it, and know its OK to ask for an Amaretto Sour, if that’s what they like. We wanted people to feel as comfortable as possible because a cocktail bar can be a really intimidating place for people, and the menu can look overwhelming, so we wanted it to read as simple, focusing on the flavours and spirits rather than everything that goes with it.

Are there any particular spirits or ingredients you enjoy working with?

I find Sherry interesting, and I love working with fortified wines and vermouths.