WORLDS BEST MARTINI SERVED AT DUKES HOTEL, LONDON

Order a martini at Dukes Bar and you might just enjoy the pleasure of long-time bar manager Alessandro Palazzi serving you from his tableside trolley.

“A visit to Dukes is like living and breathing old England,” says Alessandro. And having worked here for 12 years, he knows the hotel better than anyone.

Situated on a quiet Mayfair street, surrounded by handsome red-brick buildings, Dukes Bar immediately impresses guests with its intimate atmosphere and stellar service. There’s no music and no food, ¬apart from little bowls of olives and salted nuts – after all, something has to soak up the spirited concoctions.

GETTING BEHIND THE BAR

Born in Italy in 1958, Alessandro’s first taste of the hospitality industry came at just 14 years old, having landed a job as a

waiter. “I didn’t know which way to put the knife and the fork,” he remembers.

This set him on the path to attending catering college, and he later hitchhiked his way to London in 1975, working as a kitchen porter or making coffee – anything to get him closer to his calling.

A stint at a second restaurant in Loreto wasn’t any more successful. Home to a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the hill town in Le Marche attracts pilgrims from all over the world. When a young Alessandro had a minor altercation with one of his customers, he was quickly whisked away from the restaurant floor and installed behind the bar – let’s just say there was no room for slang amid the intensely religious atmosphere. And while the devout onlookers might not have approved, the experience quickly turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to him.

“I wasn’t old enough to serve alcohol, but I quickly realised how differently I was being treated. When you work at a bar, people want to know about you, to find out who you are,” he says.

Meeting Alessandro today, it’s hard to imagine he’s capable of uttering a crass word. Dressed in his smart white jacket, his professional yet friendly manner infuses Dukes with a sense of calm even when the place is packed. He is constantly on the move – grabbing an ice-cold bottle of gin from the freezer, welcoming familiar faces, consulting the jam-packed reservations book and switching to Italian as he quietly instructs his second-in-command.

Absolutely nothing distracts from the main attraction: the expertly crafted cocktails.

THE MAKING OF A MARTINI

“A martini is so simple, so it’s horrible when it’s not made well.”

No worries about that here. To say there’s a touch of theatre to the proceedings is a serious understatement. Alessandro pushes over one of the worn wooden trolleys that have become beloved members of the bar team. This one has a plaque with ‘1908’ on it.

A splash of English Dry Vermouth is quickly swirled around a chilled glass – “it must be a small martini glass” – and then poured onto the carpeted floor with a flourish. A coating of the bone-dry liquid is all that’s required.

Next, a generous slug of ice-cold, viscous gin is added before the final ingredient – the zest of an organic lemon from Amalfi or a Seville orange. “The citrus is the third ingredient,” he says. “As the oil sinks it changes the flavour.”

At the equivalent of five shots, it’s no wonder Alessandro has a twomartini maximum rule.