First Look at the new cocktail menu from St James Bar in London

St James Bar at Sofitel London St James will launch a brand new menu called Imagination on Thursday, July 29, 2021. A follow up to the award-winning ‘Passport’, the new menu is an innovative exploration of the concept of the imagination through drinks.

With the Imagination menu, the St James Bar team has used unique flavors, molecular techniques and sustainable processes to challenge the logical in order to embrace the abstract, and invoke the scientific to create the fantastical. 

Like the rest of the hospitality industry, St James Bar has spent the majority of the past year in lockdown, closed to the public, but truly open to the creative process.  The bar team has used the time to experiment, envisage and formulate a menu that sparks the imagination and explores our consciousness.

To formulate the menu, the team asked themselves the meaning of imagination and how it allows us to explore ideas outside our immediate reality, impact our memory and challenge our senses. And most importantly, how this can all be interpreted through cocktails.

To create the menu, the team has used multiple scientific techniques, styles and ideas to create one overarching concept. Using molecular techniques like spherication alongside carbonation and foaming allows the drinks to take new forms while changing the characteristics of ice and garnishes uses visual cues to trick the palate.

Flavor profiles are experimented with by introducing fire, air and earth elements. Sustainability is also at the forefront of the process, with the team using lemon husk in multiple ways and producing honey from hives located at the top of the hotel. 

From impressionism, relativism and symbolism, to fantasy dragons, Iron Man comics and Elton John lyrics, each cocktail’s inspiration is rooted in the imagination and how we use our brains.  Examples from the menu include: 

E=m(t+6.712): Lakes Orange Wine Cask Whisky, verjus, osmanthus tea, pistachio, peach liquor, citrus stock, fino sherry – 21

Van Gogh- Tanqueray 10 gin, yuzu butter, Italicus, unicorn cordial, white port, effervescence, husk ash – 17

What Could Be – Beluga Noble vodka, mezcal, crème de cacao blanc, cacao husk, citrus, pistachio, almond milk -17

Dreaming Mexico – Casamigos Blanco Tequila, agave & aloe syrup, pear cordial, fortified wine, yuzu, Peychaud’s bitters  – 20

Sweet Child – Michter’s US*1 Rye, donut cordial, crème de peach, tobacco liqueur, candy floss

While using a minimal approach, the menu has a playful feel, with emojis and symbols in place of letters, edible photographs and liquid shapes you can hold in your hand.

The menu itself is a focal point, taking the form of a molecular structure, with each ‘atom’ featuring a cocktail listing and the knowledgeable bar staff taking time to explain the drinks.

Situated on the corner of Pall Mall and Waterloo Place, St James Bar is tucked into the depths of Sofitel London St James Hotel, giving the bar a luxuriously clandestine feel. Curved plush velvet seating in opulent jewel shades complements brass accents, while a striking marble topped bar with colorful rows of bottled handmade tinctures, bitters and liqueurs is the room’s center-piece. The interior design also subtly combines French and English themes to match the hotel’s blend of French and local culture.

Opening Hours: Sunday & Monday 11am – midnight, Thursday – Saturday 5pm – midnight.

Tuesdays & Wednesdays closed

Location: St. James Bar at Sofitel London St James 

Address: 6 Waterloo Pl, St. James’s, London SW1Y 4AN, United Kingdom

Phone: +44 20 7747 2238

Photos: Sofitel London St James