David Bowie Is The Inspiration Behind New Cocktail Bar Ziggy’s At London’s Hotel Café Royal
When David Bowie bid a fond farewell in 1973 to his Ziggy Stardust persona, he hosted an extravagant soirée at London’s Hotel Café Royal on Regent Street and invited guests like Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Lou Reed and Barbra Streisand, and the Hotel Café Royal is celebrating this event by opening a brand new cocktail bar named Ziggy’s in honor of the legend that was Bowie.
The Hotel Café Royal has been a favorite haunt of artists and celebrities in London since time immemorial, and Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Winston Churchill, and even Muhammad Ali have all enjoyed the hotel’s sumptuous and heady atmosphere over the years. According to the Evening Standard, Ziggy’s is due to open its doors next month and the David Bowie-themed cocktail bar will be decked out with a plethora of Bowie photographs that were taken by Mick Rock, who also happened to be the official photographer of Bowie when the 1973 party was held.
Many of the Mick Rock photographs that will adorn Ziggy’s are reported to be extremely rare and the display will be a joint effort in collaboration with the Beautiful Crime art gallery that is based in London.
If you’re wondering what will be on the menu at the Bowie bar at the Hotel Café Royal, many of the singer’s favorite drinks are set to be included. But of course, as this is a David Bowie-themed cocktail bar after all, there will also be a large selection of cocktails that take their name from Bowie songs.
Relive #DavidBowie's farewell party for #ZiggyStardust at our new #cocktail bar, Ziggy's ? Read all about it via @eveningstandard https://t.co/LgIiPKk5XQ #london #mixology #cocktailbar #newopening
— Hotel Café Royal (@HotelCafeRoyal) August 24, 2018
Darkness and Disgrace will be one of the cocktails served at Ziggy’s and takes its inspiration from “Lady Stardust,” while Tigers on Vaseline from the song “Hang On To Yourself” is reported to be a pina colada with a decidedly modern twist to it.
Explaining the concept behind Ziggy’s cocktail bar at the Hotel Café Royal, Fabio Spinetti, who is the bars and beverages manager, recalled David Bowie’s July 3, 1973 send-off party at the hotel which was called The Last Supper, and explained that with all of this history, the hotel would be the most appropriate and fitting place by far for a David Bowie cocktail bar.
“Café Royal has always been the place where great minds would come to discuss great ideas. David Bowie played a really important part in Café Royal’s history, with the famous Last Supper taking place here. It only seems fitting to provide a homage to one of our most esteemed patrons.”
If you’re interested in visiting Ziggy’s for yourself and seeing the new David Bowie-inspired cocktail bar at the Hotel Café Royal, a launch date of September 10 has been set.
