Velvet Bar reveals celebrity-inspired cocktails

Salvatore Calabrese’s Velvet Bar, located in London’s Corinthia hotel, has unveiled a new drinks menu based on famous figures.

Named The Quote Book, the menu consists of 21 cocktails with each serve modelled after an icon from the 20th and 21st century – think anyone from Lady Gaga to Nelson Mandela to Elon Musk and Greta Thunberg – all reimagining their personas into a drink.

Each drink on the menu is described by one of its namesake’s famous phrases to capture its essence. For instance, “heart is what separates the good from the great” is written for the Last Dance cocktail, inspired by basketball legend Michael Jordan.

The cocktail – a Whisky Sour-inspired creation that incorporates classic American food ingredients – comes in a cup that uses 3D printing to mimic the feel of actual basketball and combines ketchup with Aperol, maple, Yellow Chartreuse and whisky.

Musk’s drink, meanwhile, The Bored Child, comes in a flight of three Manhattan riffs, each made through a different mixology process that culminates in a vacuum-distilled clear version, containing Johnnie Walker Blue Label, maple and Nixta corn liqueur.

Like the Last Dance, this drink is also presented in a vessel representative of what its icon is well-known for – a 3D-printed carbon fibre car, in the shape of Musk’s Tesla.

The theme of bespoke cups and glassware runs throughout the menu, with Pablo Picasso’s drink presented in an arty four-coloured ceramic glass crafted in Caltagirone, Sicily, and Thunberg’s Love Generation – a mix of pandan, lemon verbena milk and Ketel One Vodka – in a beeswax cup that the bar has made itself.

Along with the added theatre, the bar said the decision to present each drink in its own individual vessel helps evoke a better sense of ‘imagination, memory and feel’ for its figure.

Calabrese said: “You taste with your eyes, nose, mouth and hands. Feeling the glass is important to the journey of the drink. From the aroma when you first pick it up, to the last taste of your last sip.”

The cocktails range between £22-£45 (US$28-US$57) in price and for fans of Calabrese’s original cocktails, those are still available on the menu, including his Breakfast Martini.

Calabrese’s other London venue, Donovan Bar, also debuted a new menu last year, which he designed to reflect a journey into, through and beyond emotions.