Dukes Bar, London, October 2021
Details
- Location: St. James, London
- Cost: $29 and up per martini
- Dress code: For men, a jacket, collared shirt and slacks, no sportswear (sorry Ivan). Women, I think you know better than us men and will have the elegant clothing all settled.
The Arrival
The hotel and bar are located in a hidden courtyard down an alley off a main thoroughfare by a Square. It's intensely hard to find, and you don't realize it's really the spot until you turn that last corner off St. James Place. Map app will help you immensely, or a London cab.It's an ancient (200 years or more) building, and the bar is somewhat hidden. Turn the corner to your right as you enter the hotel, and look for this:
The Bar
Various smaller rooms off a central bar, a little cramped, but not bumping into each other tight. They keep room for the drink cart to move about.The Drinks
The drinks are the reason, the view is... non-existent. The atmosphere is good, but the martinis are a series of incredibly strong flavor delights, many named after James Bond elements as you can see on the menu below (Ian Flemming used to get exceptionally drunk here writing the books when he started out).Summary
I first was blessed by visiting here in 2014, but I didn't take any pictures! It's just a whole production and delight of drinks. While exceptionally expensive on a US drink scale, the experience seems worth it for me, and I think for most of you that enjoy an incredible drink and the dress code adds to it.Now, the dress code is listed, but seems marginally enforced. I did see some blokes in just club shirts and slacks, which was a bit sad. Anyways for the most part everyone was elegant.