Step inside and if you listen closely, you can hear it—the clink of glass, the shake of ice, the bursts of laughter, the roar of celebration. It’s a cacophony of cocktails…at one time a Strauss waltz, another a Herrmann score. Even if you wanted to resist it, the pull is too strong.
From the over-the-top opulence of the historic to the sleek and chic of the contemporary, hotel bars are magnetic. They attract out-of-towners and in-towners, haters and lovers, strangers and friends – all sharing secrets and stories over a masterfully made Martini!
This year, in association with Altamura Distilleries, I’ll be exploring some of the world’s most legendary bars—uncovering what makes them the beating heart of the hotel.
Our next stop is Copenhagen!
Nimb Hotel
Once upon a time there was a man who dreamt of a garden so magical that it bewitched not only a nation but the world. This garden furnished splendiferous amusements, mystical architecture, and culinary concoctions, promising all who wandered its meandering paths the chance to explore other realms without leaving its magical gates.
This gentleman was the famed Georg Carstensen who, after receiving a nod from King Christian VIII, constructed Tivoli Gardens right in the heart of Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen. Upon opening on August 15, 1843, the public couldn’t help but be enchanted by its Chinese-inspired, peacock decorated Pantomime Theatre; its thrilling one-of-a-kind roller coaster, Rutschebanen; and its domed, market place, The Bazaren, rising up at the edge of the garden.
Sadly, that original arched alcazar burned down in 1862, only to be rebuilt a few years later and then subsequently demolished in 1908. In 1909, designed by the Director of Tivoli and architect by trade, Knud Arne PetersenIt, it would rise again like the phoenix – an Arabesque labyrinth filled with unexpected delights.
Amongst its many charms was the terrace restaurant overseen by Louisa Nimb, the doyenne of Divan 2, one of the garden’s many eating establishments. Such an impression did she leave that in the decades that followed, the Nimb family name became enmeshed within the very fabric of the building.
Fast forward more than 100 years and, much like Cinderella’s pumpkin, the Nimb has been gloriously transformed into the sumptuous Nimb Hotel, by not just one but many an international fairy godmother, including Italian architect Matteo Thun, New York-based architects Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, and designer Ian Bader. At its very heart sits the Nimb Bar, led by Damiano Pezzi, a true Wizard of Mixology.
Charged with the task of transforming the Nimb Bar, his first instinct was to bring the garden outside inside. Rather than call on the usual minimalist motif that Scandinavia is famous for, Damiano wanted to infuse his cocktails with the colors of Tivoli.
I want the Nimb Bar to be where the lights go lighter, the fire goes brighter, your brain runs wild & your heart gets mightier. Stepping inside our bar, exploring our menu and sipping our cocktails shows the eternal magic and wonder of Tivoli, following you even after your visit, keeping surprising and warming you. Damiano Pezzi, Director of Mixology
Sitting inside a fairy-tale inspired castle, he chose no other than Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark’s greatest fairy-tale teller, as inspiration for his first menu. Damiano and his team immersed themselves in Andersen’s fairy tales. Finding a plethora of ingredients among its pages – raspberries, figs, walnuts, jams, they cast their spell over those each and everyone, conjuring up cocktails unlike any that had come before.
The Little Red Riding Hood
One such creation was The Nightingale, based on Andersen’s love letter to Tivoli’s Chinese Pavilion, a play on raspberry, gin, violet, pear and lemon delivered in cocktail glass shaped like a bird.
The following menu was dedicated to the one and only Arabic classic, One Thousand and One Nights. Its story of The Porter and the Three Ladies served as inspiration for the rum-based cocktail The Humble Feast, with its mazj of lemon, honey, fig jam. walnuts, goat milk and vanilla.
For the third and last of the Fairy-Tale menus, they drew on classic stories, such as Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and Peter Pan. The tragic tale of sisters Philomela and Procne, transformed into birds by the gods after they took revenge on King Tereus, led to a cocktail mired in “Innocent Blood” – a reduction of sherry and tequila. Painted by Danish artist Cathrine Raben Davidsen, murals of the two both in human form and as birds loom large over the bar.
Damiano and his team took their cue from the garden itself for their most recent menu – an invitation to travel without going anywhere. In the 19th century, when few people could travel far, Carstensen brought the world to them. So they took this as a challenge to do the same – crafting The Cocktail Atlas, eighteen iconic destinations you can visit without ever leaving the bar. Hints of those destinations appear in the accompanying drawings and the story of each cocktail is revealed when the drink is served.
The hotel bar is the silent, beating heart of the establishment. Here, behind the bar counter, the bartender is both historian and healer, offering not just a drink, but a bespoke story for the soul, and transforming the day’s scattered stress into a steady, sip by sip calm. Alex Gkountopoulous, Assistant Bar Manager
There’s the Anaconda Voodoo, a fruity, boozy grog honoring the Rio Grande and Amazonian Forest with a mix of Altamura Distilleries vodka, a bit of cachaça and rum, all infused with carob and topped up with a mix of cantaloupe, melon, lime and mango.
There’s the Fløde (cream in Danish) – Damiano’s homage to his adopted home. Here he transforms the American Old Fashioned into Denmark’s favorite dessert, rødgrød med fløde (red berries with cream). Danish whiskey is cut with some bourbon and Irish whiskey, then infused with homegrown strawberries then layered with local cream.
And then there’s the Eclipse, boldly going where no man has before and Damiano’s proudest creation. Inspired by travel to the moon, this cognac-based cocktail is both hot-and-cold and crafted from hotel leftovers – croissant, butter, and coffee. Two drinks appear, both made from the same recipe, but mysteriously, their texture is not the same. One represents the dark side of the moon – cold and mysterious, the other the bright side – warm and comforting.
The Nimb Bar is the social hub of the hotel, where for a little moment you leave your problems and daily struggles at the entrance, to relax and become part of the true soul of the hotel, his workers and his guests. Ilias Giannoulis, Floor Manager.
Each sip is a journey, a story, a fairy tale experience, surely what Georg Carstensen would have in mind. The magic begins from the moment a guest arrives at the Nimb Bar which sits at the heart of the Nimb Hotel in the heart of Tivoli Gardens in the heart of Denmark’s capital city. How does it end, you may ask, why, happily ever after of course!
Nimb Bar Team
