The Bartender's New Face

The Savoy hotel’s iconic haunt has hired its first woman senior bartender in over 100 years, and the trend is catching on.

- Nicola Davison

As with famous people, in real life the American Bar in the Savoy is smaller than you might expect. London’s oldest surviving cocktail bar—so named because it serves “American-style” mixed drinks—is a peculiar shape, curved like a pill capsule that has been pinched in the middle. Its decor is art deco futurism; the armchairs are low and the cushions are velvet. The bar itself has just four stools. The host attends to the four seated patrons, while the “dispenser” mixes up to 1,000 drinks a night.