A Ziggy Stardust Bar Lands in London This Fall
Fans of enigmatic musician and provocative performer David Bowie looking to make a pilgrimage to Britain can certainly find plenty of locations where they can walk in the late singer's footsteps, from his birthplace in Brixton to the shrine erected at 23 Heddon Street in Mayfair where the album cover for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was shot. Now another Bowie-frequented landmark is paying tribute to that same alien alter ego with a permanent spot for devotees and casual admirers alike to drink in the character's aesthetic.
Hotel Café Royal—home to the Soho hangout of Oscar Wilde, the Beatles, and the Stones, and where Bowie famously retired his colorful Ziggy Stardust persona—is giving dedicated fans (and anyone else just looking for an interesting venue for drinks) a chance to step into the Stardust era with the opening of Ziggy's, a cocktail room adjacent to its recently reopened restaurant, Laurent. The bar will include a Bowie-themed selection of cocktails, including what the bar is dubbing modern twists on some of his favorites.
Newly-offered drinks include Darkness and Disgrace—dark rum, tawny port, coffee liqueur, simple syrup, and egg yolk; Animal Grace—orange shrub, tequila, Ancho Reyes, apricot liqueur, agave, lime juice, and soda with an orange- and chili-crusted rim; Tiger on Vaseline—cachaca, Tanaka spiced rum, roasted pineapple juice, lime juice, and topped with coconut and white chocolate foam; and Femme Fatale—a Bowie-inspired martini of sake and Byrrh garnished with a floating rose petal.
The room is decked out with photographs of the Ziggy character by photographer Mick Rock who followed Bowie on tour at that time. Ziggy’s opens to the public on Thursday, September 20 and will serve drinks Monday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. and is located in the Hotel Café Royal (68 Regent Street, London, W1B 4DY UK). For another bit of history at the same address, the hotel's other watering hole, The Green Bar, is also soon to be revamping its menu with a take on the famed Café Royal's 1937 cocktail book.
