Cocktails at Your Service: 8 Hotels With Amazing Mini-Bars
It’s gotten oh-so much easier to get a good drink at a hotel bar these days, but your in-room mini-bar? At most hotels, you’re lucky if you get a ho-hum tonic or soda to mix with a work-a-day spirit of (limited) choice. And garnish? Well, maybe that Lifesaver at the bottom of your travel bag will do the trick.
You deserve better. After a long day of traveling when all you want to do is kick back and relax with a nice cocktail—preferably in your PJs—these eight hotels are willing to let you shake things up right in the privacy of your own room. Put out the Do-Not-Disturb sign and check in to one of these thirst-quenching spots.
1. The Darcy: Washington, DC
The Darcy in the nation’s capitol is shaking things up by bringing the bar to you via their outstanding Cocktail Butler program. (Think: room service for booze!) A well-trained in-house mixologist will arrive at your door with a thoroughly stocked bar cart and build you a beautiful drink right in your own room, be it their signature Ten Thyme Smash (fresh thyme, cucumber, and lime juice shaken with Tanqueray 10 gin, simple syrup, and white cranberry) or whatever your drink of choice may be. Garnish? Proper glassware? Check and check. They’ll even customize the cart to your preferences when they take your reservation.
2. The Langham: New York, NY
Give a person a fish, and she’ll eat for a day. But give her a good cocktail kit, and she’ll be mixing up drinks each night of her stay. At New York’s five-star Langham in Midtown, guest room mini-bars come equipped with their Mini Craft Cocktail Set, which has a trio of pre-mixed classics (the Old Fashioned, the Moscow Mule, and their Spicy Margarita). And if you want to bring the party on the plane when you leave, the Langham’s Carry-On Cocktail Kit includes the fixings for a pink Champagne Cocktail with their house Laurent Perrier Champagne in single-serve carry-on size—the perfect way to toast a great vacay.
3. The Four Seasons: Austin, TX
Don’t mess with Texas and its love of Margaritas. At the Four Seasons in Austin, they’re happy to mix them for you. In May 2018, this outpost of the luxury hotel chain began offering a daily Happy Hour On-Demand Margarita Cart, accessed by its very own button on each room’s phone. From 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., you can call for a bartender to arrive at your door, pushing a bar cart teeming with premium tequilas (including Four Seasons’ own custom Herradura blend) and myriad salts for rimming. Choose from any one of up to 500 combinations of up, on the rocks, or blended versions of the popular classic.
4. The Cape: Los Cabos, Mexico
At the end of California’s Baja Peninsula sits the Cape, a swanky, beachside hotel that’s part of the Thompson Hotel collective. Here, each guestroom comes equipped with a custom, hand-etched crystal bottle of Realeza Mexicana, a 100% blue agave tequila produced exclusively for the hotel, and each day it’s stocked alongside with fresh orange slices and the traditional Cabo go-with, candied mangos with chili powder—a pretty apropos cocktail to savor while you sit on your room’s deck and watch the sun go down.
5. The Keeting Hotel: San Diego, CA
Be sure to reserve the Macallan Suite at the Keating Hotel (designed by the makers of Ferrari and Maserati, don’t you know?) on your next trek to sunny San Diego. Here, you room will not only come with full bottles of vintage Macallan single malt Scotch and locally brewed beers, but also an in-room cocktail-crafting kit and an ample selection of spirits with which to employ it. Bonus: The gleaming copper Morpheus Jacuzzi tub makes a pretty swell spot to sip and chill.
6. The Four Seasons Hotel: Orlando, FL
Sometimes, you just want a glass of wine. Or maybe two. At the Orlando Four Seasons, not only can you choose how much you want without leftovers to contend with, but you can grape-hop a little, too. Ask for a room (there are around 100 available) that contains one of their Plum Wine units. Each one holds a perfect cellar-temperature red (Etude Lyric pinot noir) and white (a stellar Stag’s Leap chardonnay) from which to choose and will dispense single five-ounce pours while preserving the bottle inside.
7. Kimpton Aerston Hotel: Nashville, TN
Since it opened in Spring 2017, the Kimpton Aerston has separated itself from other Music City hotels with its whiskey selections, one of the largest in town. It’s not, however, sequestered to the bar at the on-site Henley Restaurant. Not only is Henley’s full cocktail list available for in-room sipping, but they also offer an “Whiskey + Bourbon” package, which includes house-made whiskey-spiked nibbles that await you in your room upon arrival, two complimentary rocks glasses stamped with the logo of local craft whiskey distillery, Nelson’s Green Brier, the fixings to make the whiskey-centric cocktails of your choice from their excellent cocktail menu (perhaps a Briar Patch, with Elijah Craig bourbon, creme Yvette, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup, all measured and ready to stir), and, when you’re ready to step out, a private tour and tasting at Nelson’s Green Brier, as well as an extra 20 percent off at Henley.
8. Mr. C: Beverly Hills, CA
Leave it to the next generation of Italian hospitality icons, the Cipriani family, to stock every room of their glamorous Beverly Hills hideaway with a stash of bottled cocktails, six in total. Choose from a classic gin Martini, 1934 Cosmo, Ginger Buck, Manhattan, Negroni, or an Old Fashioned, all crafted by mixologist Nathan Oliver for the clever to-go cocktail company, BTL SVC, founded by Michael Baruch. But these are no pre-fab flops—each one offers stellar spirits and ingredients, like the decidedly grown-up vodka-based Cosmo, with dry curacao, raspberry gomme syrup, fresh lime juice, and aromatic citrus oil. And just in case you want to tuck some in your travel case on the way out, they sell them in the lobby, too. (Individual serves are $15 per cocktail, and the box of 5 individually handcrafted bottles is $110).