The Atlantic Bar & Grill , one of the incubators of the twenty-first century cocktail revolution, was opened in 1994 by Irish nightclub and restaurant impresario Oliver Peyton (1961–) at 20 Sherwood Street off Piccadilly Circus in London. It occupied a magnificent art deco ballroom that had lain dormant under the Regent Palace Hotel until Peyton painstakingly restored it to its former lavish, gilt-edged glory.
Catering to cabinet ministers and artists, transvestites and rock stars, the Atlantic had no late-night cover charge, unusual for London at the time, nor was it a private members’ club. But it did have a strict door policy, making it the ultimate celebrity hideaway.
Determined to create the ultimate hedonistic temple to food and drink, Peyton convinced Chris Edwardes to leave the Groucho Club, a members’ only bastion of music, TV, and film celebrities to head up the Atlantic’s bar team, which at varying points included bartenders Douglas Ankrah, Dré Masso, and Jamie Terrell, all of whom would go on to bar-world stardom. He also lured the “godfather of London cocktails,” Dick Bradsell, to preside over the eponymous lounge, Dick’s Bar. Bradsell was not alone. His roster of protégés included current luminaries Nick Strangeway, Tony Conigliaro, and Angus Winchester, as well as his assistant bar manager Spike Marchant.
The Atlantic’s doors closed in 2005 when its landlord, the Regent Palace Hotel, decided to refurbish the property. The space was converted and reopened in 2012 as Brasserie Zédel. Retaining its original art deco décor, Dick’s Bar was also reopened and renamed Bar Américain.
See also Bradsell, Dick; and Strangeway, Nick.
Barber, Lynn. “Interview: Peyton’s Place.” Guardian, June 16, 2002. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/jun/16/foodanddrink.features6 (accessed January 29, 2021).
Personal interviews with Dick Bradsell and Oliver Peyton dated 15 January 2011 and 9 February 2011.
By: Anistatia R. Miller and Jared M. Brown