The Dukes Bar is a classic cocktail bar on the ground floor of Dukes Hotel, a boutique hotel in London that has operated out of Mayfair’s exclusive St James’s Place since 1908.
The international reputation of the Dukes Bar rests on its Martini ritual, in which the drink is prepared on a tableside trolley by a white-jacketed bartender using a dasher of vermouth, frozen gin, or vodka poured straight from bottle to glass, and a lemon twist, without any shaking or stirring. The result is a Martini of unusual strength and concentration, a fact that necessitated the introduction of the bar’s famous house rule of two Martinis, maximum, per guest. The Dukes Martini ritual was developed by former head bartenders Gilberto Preti and Salvatore Calabrese in the 1980s. In 1988, Kingsley Amis pronounced the bar “one of the best spots of its kind in London, if not the best of all.”
Dukes Bar originally operated more like a private club than a bar, and even though it has been open to the public for many decades, that air of clubbiness remains. Numerous movie stars, politicians, and royals have sought refuge in its intimate, wood-paneled surroundings, but its most celebrated regular remains James Bond author Ian Fleming, who could often be found drinking Martinis at Dukes in the 1950s.
It’s often claimed that the Martini Vesper featured in Fleming’s Casino Royale (1953) was created here by Gilberto Preti, but this is a myth, since the recipe was published long before Preti was working behind the bar. Dukes’ head bartender is currently Alessandro Palazzi, who has been in the role since 2007.
See also Calabrese, Salvatore; and Martini.
Amis, Kingsley. “Restaurants: Tranquil Haven in St. James’s.” Illustrated London News, March 1, 1988, 56.
Dukes Hotel website. http://www.dukeshotel.com/dukes-bar/ (accessed March 3, 2021).
By: Alice Lascelles