The Beaufort Bar at The Savoy Launches Pop-up Cocktail Menu

Known the world over for its theatrical art deco setting and innovative drinks, The Beaufort Bar has launched a spectacular new cocktail menu that pushes the boundaries of cocktail making, imagination and design.

The brainchild of award-winning Head Bartender Chris Moore, The Beaufort Bar’s new menu takes the form of a limited edition pop-up book. Featuring beautifully hand-drawn and painstakingly cut illustrations, the menu’s pages throw open a heady world of characters, tales and scents, with each exquisitely crafted cocktail telling its own unique story.

The illustrations were drawn by Joe Wilson, renowned for his extraordinary attention to detail and precise draftsmanship. Combining traditional and contemporary styles and techniques and working with ink, pencil and digital colour, Joe, alongside paper cutting expert, Helen Friel, has ensured that Chris Moore’s creations have been visually realised on the menu’s pages. With each page illustrating not only what the drink will look like, but also what inspired its unique flavours and design, The Beaufort Bar’s pop-up menu will take guests on a tactile and pictorial journey that tantalises the taste-buds and inspires the senses.

Inspired by far-flung parts of the world and famous faces and travelling through iconic eras, the menu takes the guest on a journey from light to dark. Beginning with light spirits, florals and zesty citrus, the menu then touches on fruit based spirits and sweet ingredients before concluding with dark spirits, spicy notes and rich flavours.

Included in the menu are the Beaufort Bar’s popular Character Cocktails and other entirely unique creations such as the Impressionist, a dramatic cocktail dedicated to Claude Monet and served with a smoking rose, and Ratification, incorporating Martini Rosato pressure infused with strawberries.

The limited edition menu, of which there are only 1000 copies, is a piece of artwork in its own right. Each numbered edition can be bought for £50 from Savoy Tea or the Beaufort Bar itself and makes the ideal gift for both cocktail aficionados and design lovers.

The Beaufort Bar provides a theatrical, art deco setting in which to enjoy cocktails that push the boundaries. Award-winning head bartender, Chris Moore, and his expert team have created a menu designed to intrigue and excite guests with each drink listed entirely unique to the Beaufort Bar. Character Cocktails, served in era-specific vintage glassware and garnished tableside, pay tribute to four of The Savoy’s most famous personalities, and The Impressionist, one of the Beaufort Bars most popular cocktails, arrives at the table with a smoking rose for that element of drama. For guests with more of a taste for champagne, the Beaufort Bar boasts an impressive selection of vintage and non-vintage champagne by the glass and bottle. The bar itself stands on the hotel’s former cabaret stage, which was graced by such luminaries as Carol Gibbons, the Savoy Orpheans and George Gershwin. A tradition of live entertainment continues to this day with nightly performances by both renowned and up and coming talent, as well as monthly evenings of Cabaret and Burlesque.

Joe Wilson is an illustrator based in the UK specialising in highly detailed, hand-drawn illustrations and print. Working with a combination of pencil, ink and digital colour, Joe's work takes form as a hybrid of the traditional and contemporary. Focusing on intense detail and strong drawing, Joe's unique style and considered draftsmanship attracts a wide variety of international clients, with work ranging from full media advertising campaigns to limited run screen prints. It was Joe’s cover illustration of bestselling novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet that encouraged Chris Moore to approach him for this project.

Helen Friel is a freelance Paper Engineer and Illustrator living and working in London. In 2009 she graduated from Central Saint Martin’s with a First in BA Graphic Design. Her work has been featured in Papercraft, Papercraft 2, Grafik, Design*Sponge Online and Aesthetica Magazine