If you’ve got dinner plans in London make sure you stop off for pre-dinner cocktails in The Langham’s exquisite Artesian Bar as the space is the ultimate source of sophistication. Created by late David Collins, the award-winning bar takes its eclectic inspiration from the Victorian Cabinets of Curiosities featuring hidden textures as well as details and references including jewelled mirror panelling, new fibrous plaster columns, beautiful ceiling details, furniture sheathed in vivid blue and purple crocodile leather, bespoke lacquers referencing ‘La Chasse aux Papillons’, and intricately carved Pagoda bar. It has been crowned the “World’s Best Bar“ for the third year in a row as well as the “Most Influential European Bar” in the Cocktail & Spirit Awards.

The Artesian bar at The Langham Hotel

The Artesian bar at The Langham Hotel

Named for the 360 foot Artesian well beneath hotel foundations, which supplied the original hotel with the purest water in London the bar is compact without being cramped, decorated in a smart and loosely exotic oriental style. Three oversized hand-crafted chandeliers add to narrative exploring the Empire and the Far East within the scheme.

The Artesian bar at The Langham Hotel

Formerly known as Chukka Bar the space undergone complete strip out and reconfiguration along with a new restaurant catering kitchen for a staggering 3 million pound sterling which included structural modifications to form the new Artesian Bar.

The Artesian bar at The Langham Hotel

For Kratena, Artesian’s multi-award winning Head Bartender the glass is “a stage, a way to communicate with a guest. Apart from being a vessel it’s a control mechanism, to keep the drink hot or cold. It’ll affect the way the drink will taste, how the liquid will hit your palette, how the aroma will form. If something doesn’t exist, we design it and create it the best way we can.”

Work of Art: Above and Beyond Cocktail at the Artesian Bar

As at other hotel bars Kratena changes the bar menu frequently, debuting an entirely new themed collection of cocktails each year, but the thought he gives to each drink is exceptional.

Work of Art: The Digi Diva Cocktail at the Artesian Bar

I promise you won’t be disappointed with their menu, Surrealism 2015 which is inspired by ‘Les Diners de Gala’ (‘Salvator Dali’s Rare, Erotic Vintage Cook Book’), one of greatest avant-garde movements of the 20th century.

‘Les Diners de Gala’ (‘Salvator Dali’s Rare, Erotic Vintage Cook Book’)

“We liked the idea of surrealism, it has so much potential,” says Kratena. “We wanted a theme that gave us enough creative freedom and as nothing has to be logical with surrealism, that really excited us.”

“When I was six years old,” Salvador Dalí once professed, “I wanted to be a cook.” But it wasn’t until his late sixties that he channeled his childhood fantasy into Les Diners de Gala.

Salvador Dalí’s Cookbook Les Diners De Gala was an invaluable reference point.

Left: detail of recipe #56 Veal cutlets stuffed with snails; Center: Picasso by Salvador Dali; Right: detail of recipe recipe #57 Frog Pasties

“The book contains the recipes as well as Dali’s drawings. We were surprised that it contained cocktails at all, but they were very basic. So we’ve devised a menu where the liquid plays against the rules. We’ve taken all the surrealist symbols and created surrealist flavours, flavours that don’t exist.”

Chameleon Crystals #FeelingAmazing

Ever had a cocktail served from an elephant made from Lego? Apparently the Lego website crashed for 24 hours when Kratena and Caporale, assistant Head Bartender were ordering the 700 components required for their prototype. “We were ordering 200 pieces at a time, the website couldn’t cope! No-one orders Lego like Kratena and Caporale!”

Anti Hero #FeelingLikeARockStar

Visually it’s a stunner – what’s not to love about a giant copper ant bearing a cracking-tasting cocktail? In Dalí’s world, the ant represents decadence, something the team have adhered to by creating an opulent serve.

Join The Colony #FeelingExcited

And lastly who needs chat up lines when you can say exactly what’s on your mind with a drink? Talk about sensual, it’s positively x-rated. Cup the fur coaster in your hands, take the vessel to your mouth and the first thing that hits you is the intoxicating scent – Hermés Jardin de Monsieur Li spritzed into the fabric. Next, take a sip. I guarantee it will play with your mind.

1C Portland Place, London, W1B 1JA, United Kingdom, View Map

Your Room, Or Mine? #FeelingNaughty