These Storied Hotel Bars Gave Us the World's Most Famous Cocktails

The story of the Bloody Mary began in 1920s Paris when French bartender Fernand Petiot served a tomato-and-vodka tipple to Serge Obolensky at Harry's New York Bar. Obolensky, whose father-in-law, John Jacob Astor IV, founded The St. Regis New York, is said to have recruited Petiot to bartend at the Manhattan hotel's King Cole Bar, where he asked the Frenchman to recreate the tangy, tomatoey drink. Petiot obliged, this time spicing it up with salt, pepper, lemon, and Worcestershire Sauce. Petiot called his new iteration the Red Snapper, lest his guests be offended by its far more vulgar other name, the Bloody Mary. Today, guests can order the original-recipe drink at The King Cole Bar, or try varied versions at St. Regis hotels and resorts around the world.

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Arguably the most iconic hotel in this Southeast Asian city-state (among cocktail connoisseurs, anyway), Raffles Singapore is projected to re-open in mid-2019 following an extensive renovation. Plantation-style decor in the 1887-built hotel's legendary Long Bar is being refreshed in the process, but one thing will remain unchanged—you'll still be able to order up a Singapore Sling, the now-famous, gin-based cocktail that bartender Ngiam Tong Boon concocted here more than 100 years ago.

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Opened in 1890, The Savoy's American Bar is the longest-running cocktail bar in London and has served as a laboratory of sorts for legendary bartenders such as Ada Coleman, who dreamed up her signature Hanky Panky there in the early 1900s. (It was also named the World's Best Bar in 2017.) But the bar's legacy will forever be most closely intertwined with Coleman's successor, Harry Craddock, who combined gin, Cointreau, and lemon juice to create a pale, ghostly libation called the White Lady. Want to try it for yourself? Pick up a copy of Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book to get the recipe, or head to the hotel for a more immersive experience.

A longtime hangout for literary giants like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Ritz Paris's Bar Hemingway, is credited with giving us two best-loved cocktails—the Serendipity and the Sidecar. In 1994, the same year he was hired, head barman Colin Peter Field created the Serendipity, which combines Calvados, fresh mint, white sugar, apple juice, and Brut champagne and is one of the bar's best-sellers. The Sidecar's history is much murkier—it's widely thought to have been created around the end of World War I, but either in Paris or London, depending on who you ask. Insiders at the Ritz Paris say it was born at Bar Hemingway, a mixture of cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice. If you feel like spending big, spring for the Ritz Sidecar, a version that Frank Meier, the hotel's first head barman, is said to have created for a wealthy patron in 1923 using a rare, 19th-century cognac. In 2001, Field updated the Ritz Sidecar recipe. It'll set you back just south of $2,000.

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In 1894, bartenders at The Waldorf Astoria's Sir Harry's Bar came up with the Rob Roy cocktail to fete the opening of an operetta of the same name that was based on the life of Scottish folk hero Robert Roy MacGregor. The drink, which is said to have been a favorite of Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly, comprises scotch (a nod to MacGregor's heritage), sweet vermouth, and a dash of bitters and is served straight up or on the rocks. The hotel is currently closed for a major renovation, but when it reopens (a date has yet to be set), chances are the Rob Roy will still be on the menu.

With its tropical-tasting blend of dark rum, orange, and pineapple juices, grenadine, and cherry and orange garnishes, Planter's Punch is a fitting sipper for the hot, sultry South. Many cocktail connoisseurs attribute the punch's creation to Charleston's original Planters Inn, which opened in 1809. However, current hotel insiders say it likely originated in the British West Indies in the late 1700s and that, given some similarities between the two places during that period—namely their plantation societies, prevalence of rum, and affinity for imbibing—it's no wonder that the cocktail's origin is sometimes confused between the two. One issue the Inn's staffers don't dispute is that the punch was popularized at the hotel, at whose Champagne Bar it's now served nightly.

Cocktails are serious business at the Arizona Biltmore, so much so that this summer, the hotel launched a special, 45-minute Happy Hour History Tour. Each Friday evening, guests can tag along as a resident historian guides them through the storied hotel's past as a playground for prominent figures. Each tour includes two drinks—a glass of bubbly and the iconic Tequila Sunrise, which bartender Gene Sulit created in the 1930s for a guest who requested a drink that would combine two of his favorite things: tequila and sitting poolside. Sulit's formula—soda, tequila, Creme de Cassis, and fresh lime juice—was a winning one and is still served at the hotel's Wright Bar, where he whipped it up.

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Few New York City hotels have ties to the literary world stronger than The Algonquin. In the early 1900s, the hotel near Times Square played host to meetings of The Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers, actors, and critics who enjoyed daily lunches there for nearly a decade. Among the group's sharp-witted members was poet, playwright, and satirist Dorothy Parker, who once proclaimed, “Three be the things I shall never attain: envy, content, and sufficient Champagne.” Perhaps no amount of bubbly was enough for Parker, but bookish fans in a boozy mood can sip her namesake cocktail—a blend of gin, St. Germain, lemon juice, honey, and basil leaves—to their hearts' content at the hotel's Blue Bar, where it was crafted in her honor.

Arguably the king of classic cocktails, the martini came to be in NYC. Like The St. Regis, The Knickerbocker was founded by the ill-fated, multi-hyphenate millionaire John Jacob Astor IV (he perished aboard the Titanic in 1912) in the early 1900s. It became a regular haunt for high-profile guests such as oil tycoon and industry magnate John D. Rockefeller. Lore has it that, in 1906, Martini di Arma di Taggia, a bartender in the hotel's former watering hole, the 42nd street country club, served Rockefeller a mixture of gin, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, citrus bitters, orange bitters, and a lemon twist garnish. Rockefeller reportedly liked the unnamed sipper so much that he called it the Martini in honor of its creator. Today, guests can order an updated version in the hotel's flagship restaurant, Charlie Palmer at The Knick.

One of Italy's most famous exports is another cocktail whose origins are up for debate. Though some sources credit Florence's Grand Hotel Baglioni with creating the Negroni, some of the hotel's insiders are quick to offer a correction. In truth, they say, it was Count Camillo Negroni who came up with the namesake cocktail while hanging out at the city's now-closed Giacosa café. Following the count's death, the International Bartender's Association is said to have tried changing the drink's original recipe. Gigi Senesi, a barman at Hotel Baglioni who was knowledgeable about the Negroni's makeup, fought to preserve the original recipe—and won. While Hotel Baglioni didn't directly create the popular cocktail, Senesi ostensibly played a major part in rescuing it from the depths of cocktail obscurity. For years, the hotel was said to serve one of the best Negronis around; order one at the hotel's American Bar to judge for yourself.

In 1949, then American ambassador to Luxembourg Perle Mesta is said to have been relaxing at Hotel Metropole's Belle Epoque bar in Brussels when bartender Gustave Tops custom-made a cocktail just for her. In what was perhaps an acknowledgment of the Cold War, which was in its early stages, Tops mixed Russian vodka with coffee liqueur to create a dark, brooding drink he called a Black Russian. It, along with dozens of other classics, is still available on the hotel's extensive cocktail menu.

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That the piña colada—a frosty, blended concoction comprising rum, coconut cream, heavy cream, and fresh pineapple juice—has become synonymous with warm, beachy destinations is no accident. Rather, it took Ramón “Monchito” Marrero Perez, a bartender at the Caribe Hilton's Caribar for 35 years, three months of toiling and experimenting in 1954 to come with a recipe that he felt perfectly captured the flavors of Puerto Rico. Little did Perez know that, 24 years later, his frozen, beach-ready beverage would be declared the country's national drink, or that it would become a mainstay of beachfront resorts and bars the world over.