With Fred Siggins off this week, we’ve got a look at what makes the international hotel bar interesting in 2025 — and how it has changed — from Cara Devine.
The hotel bar in Australia isn’t nearly as developed as it is in the UK, the US, or in parts of Asia — there are some truly stunning hotel bars in Hong Kong, by the way — but it is coming along. So below, we’ve also got a look at the best hotel bars in Australia according to bartenders, operators, and industry figures, all of whom cast votes for six great bars in the Boothby Best Bars Awards program this year.
Lastly, there is a new, much-anticipated Melbourne bar opening its doors this afternoon — scroll to the end to find out which one.
Let’s get into it. — Sam Bygrave
THE WALDORF ASTORIA, the American Bar at The Savoy, Raffles, Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle, Bar Hemingway at the Ritz… these are the iconic names that punctuate the bartending lore we rediscovered at the beginning of the cocktail renaissance. These great hotel bars symbolised a golden era of glitz, glamour and grandeur that it is easy to romanticise, and they provided plenty of inspiration for early 2000s bartenders trying to revive a level of reverence for mixed drinks (while they looked down their twirly moustaches at you).
But we are now in a different era of bartending, where pared back sensibilities have triumphed over pomp, and while some long-standing hotel bars can continue to trade on grandiose nostalgia, a new generation of luxury hotels are looking to innovative bars to set them apart.