Dukes Bar
Dukes Bar review: the St James's hotel bar that Ian Fleming drank in is still the bone-cold martini benchmark in London. A two-drink limit. A strong pour.
Dukes Bar, tucked off St James’s Place, is a small, wood-panelled room that has been making cold martinis for so long that the idea of ordering something else seems slightly naive.
The room
Twelve armchairs, a single trolley, a handful of bar stools in the connecting room.
What to order
The Vesper or the dry gin Martini, made tableside, with the glass straight out of the freezer. Accompaniment: a bowl of Marcona almonds.
The drinks list
Almost irrelevant. Come for the Martini.
What you will pay
Two martinis, nibbles, service: around £75.
The verdict
Not the Connaught, but its proper rival. Go once a year.
Nathaniel Ashford
Senior contributing editor
Nathaniel Ashford writes about bars, cocktails, pubs and the London neighbourhoods that hold them together. A former drinks-trade journalist, he now contributes a weekly cocktail column for Vivi and leads the Vivi Neighbourhoods series.
He knows more about vermouth than is strictly respectable. Based in Fitzrovia; generally found two doors down from wherever he is supposed to be.
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