4 American Bars We Want To Visit NOW

The US may not be so united right now – but there’s still plenty to raise a glass to at these classic cocktail institutions.?

BEMELMANS BAR

This whimsical yet elegant watering hole is located in New York’s The Carlyle hotel – also known as ?the New York White House? during the administration of JFK, and where Marilyn Monroe used to sneak up to his 34th-floor apartment via the service entrance. Oh, if the bar’s famed murals could talk – Cocktails are both classic and quirky: Earl Grey martini anyone? rosewoodhotels.com

AMERICAN BAR

Some woman for one woman, Ada Coleman was made head bartender at the London’s Savoy hotel in 1903. There she invented the Hanky Panky – still on the menu – while her successor Harry Craddock (who returned to Britain from New York after Prohibition was introduced) wrote The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, containing 750 concoctions including his own creation, the Corpse Reviver. fairmont.com

LOOS BAR

Also known as the American Bar, this small but beautifully formed historic saloon is tucked off Vienna’s K?rntner-strasse. Modernist architect Adolf Loos completed it in 1908, and it has aged beautifully, with all the Art Deco trademarks – onyx tiles, mirrors, mahogany panelling, leather banquettes, a marble green-and-white chequerboard floor and seriously good cocktails served by dapper staff. loosbar.at

HARRY?S NEW YORK BAR

This lively piano bar in Paris was mentioned in the Ian Fleming short story From a View to a Kill – and also in Brendan Behan’s memoirs, him having worked there in the late 1940s. Other famous suppers include Coco Chanel and Hemingway (in fairness, where didn’t he drink?); it’s where George Gershwin composed An American in Paris – and it is claimed that the Bloody Mary was invented there in 1930. harrysbar.fr

As featured in the current issue of Cara magazine, the inflight publication of Aer Lingus.