Jules doesn’t have to look far to satisfy his love of both glamour and quality cocktails: Mathieu the Barman at the hotel, is full of surprises for every season.
And what’s even better, he saves some of summer’s delights for the cold weather, conserving much of the delicious and seasonal summer fruits for the winter. These pleasures light up Jules’ day, shaken in Mathieu’s very own way: there are of course Mojitos – so fashionable – which Mathieu makes with bananas, strawberries, raspberries, passion fruit… “or kiwi,” as Mathieu tells Jules “with fruit and then kiwi vodka… it creates a scrumptious taste of kiwi which I know you will love.”
There are also English Mojito’s “similar to a gin and tonic: a mix of mint and lime, brown sugar, with gin replacing the rum and tonic instead of fizzy water.” For a more classic style, Jules loves Mathieu’s version of a Cosmo, with raspberry and watermelon – “a silky mix, like a smoothie which I build into a short drink: Martini, Roasata and Vodka”. But Jules and Mathieu know, the wintery months are more deserving of an after dinner tipple – Cognac, Armagnac, Cointreau cream, “these are harder to rework” explains Mathieu. Jules is not complaining: in the season where we need comforting the most, what better way than a classic English drinking club: The Side Car (cognac, lemon juice, cointreau) and Mathieu knows the perfect dosage of each ingredient, or a martini coffee (coffee, a dash of coffee liqueur and vodka), Black or White Russians.
Jules loves when the bar is buzzing and the number of guests stops the cold from coming in. The chat, the swapping of stories create a relaxed atmosphere in which everyone can marvel at Mathieu’s talents who has yet more wintery recipes to discover, the “Calva Daisy, because Calva is the digestif which has the most flavour and works the best mixed: Calva, a little grenadine and a lemon digestif and why not a touch of Cointreau”, or Sour Amaretto, a classic which people often forget about, with lemon juice, sugar and amaretto, served fresh of course!
Cheers Jules!
