An elegant Rat Pack theme and constant clatter of shaking ice cubes proves a winning combination for Maybe Sammy
Remember Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown gyrating in sync, flicking rum bottles and iced glasses in the air before a throng of permed and adoring city slickers?
Well, this isn’t exactly like a scene from Cocktail – there’s not a single perm in central Sydney in 2023. But the rest of the Maybe Sammy experience? It’s got the moves.
Continue reading...Classic, smoke-stained Dutch drinking spots should be given protected status, say campaigners
On the bar is a dispenser for Dutch jenever – the liquor that inspired British gin – silver taps of lager and 10 hard-boiled eggs at €1 a pop.
Café de Druif is one of Amsterdam’s oldest “brown bars”, or bruine kroegen, and part of a movement to preserve these cosy drinking rooms.
Continue reading...London gallery will be latest institution to offer after-hours events when it reopens in June after a £35m refurbishment
If gazing at paintings in the hushed surroundings of an art gallery isn’t your thing, perhaps cocktails, live DJ sets and quirky fashion shows are. In which case, head straight to that art gallery.
This week the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in central London announced that when it reopens in June after a £35m refurbishment, a new bar will serve cocktails and small plates long after its display areas have closed.
Continue reading...Nightclubs across the world have been linked to outbreaks, leading some countries to open up to vaccinated clubbers only
They only wanted to enjoy themselves on the sunny Sardinian coast last summer after a tough two-month lockdown. But instead, young Italians, who had frequented nightclubs, returned home either with Covid-19 or laden with feelings of guilt, regret or anger at the authorities.
Nightclubs, such as those in Spain, France, the UK, Austria and Thailand, have triggered coronavirus outbreaks since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading...At least 6,000 people say they caught coronavirus in Ischgl, dubbed ‘Ibiza on ice’, and their class action is gaining pace. Those who were there recall a terrifying week
In the first week of March, Charlie Jackson had an argument with his wife. The recruitment agent, 53, from Pangbourne in Berkshire, was due to catch a flight to Innsbruck for a three-day “boys’ holiday”, skiing in the Tirolean Alps. Jackson’s wife, Carol, felt Ischgl, the resort booked by the group, was a bit too close to the parts of northern Italy that had recently been shut down to contain the spread of a mystery flu-like illness. But Jackson threw caution to the wind: he had already spent more than £1,000 on the trip.
Ischgl, one of the most popular ski resorts in Europe, is what Jackson calls “a boyish kind of place”. He and his friends had been visiting the town in the Paznaun valley, Austria, for the past nine years. The snow is reliably powdery from November to May. The compact nature of the place means you don’t need a car to get around. The facilities are well-run: Ischgl has 45 state-of-the-art ski lifts, three of which take you directly from the edge of town to the mountain.
Continue reading...There are must-sees, of course, but to really get under the skin of Europe’s great cities go for our pick of less-touristy districts
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